It Ends With Us Author’s Therapy Admission Amid Escalating Blake Lively–Justin Baldoni Lawsuit

Colleen Hoover just said the quiet part out loud about the whole It Ends With Us situation, and yeah, it is not pretty. In a new interview, she admits the nonstop drama around the movie has gotten so intense she might need therapy. This all ties back to the ongoing legal mess between the film's leads, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, which keeps spitting out new headlines like a broken printer.

What Hoover actually said

Talking to Elle Magazine in an interview published November 20, 2025, the 45-year-old author didn&apost try to romanticize anything. She says the discourse has stopped being fun or flattering and started feeling grossly real, especially for the people caught in the middle.

'It feels like a circus... This has impacted some of the actors' careers in huge ways. And I just find it all around sad.'

She also admitted she now downplays her own hit when strangers ask what she does, because she doesn&apost want the conversation that follows. She still loves the book, she says, just not so publicly anymore. And then the kicker: 'Maybe I need therapy, I don&apost know.'

How it spiraled from a big movie to a bigger mess

Here&aposs the nutshell version of what the filings, emails, and reports claim, with all the appropriate 'alleged' caveats in place:

• Newly surfaced emails, reported by the Daily Mail, show Justin Baldoni saying he felt pushed to meet Blake Lively&aposs creative demands and described himself as 'waving the white flag.'
• In those exchanges, Baldoni also wrote: 'the last thing I want to do is kiss this woman,' referring to Lively, which gives you a sense of how strained things had become on set.
• The working relationship kept deteriorating through 2024. Lively filed a lawsuit seeking $161 million in damages.
• Baldoni fired back with a countersuit seeking $400 million, aimed at Lively and Ryan Reynolds.
• Baldoni&aposs side argues Lively tried to control the film&aposs narrative, pushed him out of marketing and credits conversations, and forced him to bring in crisis PR.
• Time reported that Ryan Reynolds allegedly berated Baldoni at one point, and that Baldoni ended up seeking therapy.

Fans are split, loudly

Hoover&aposs comments have the internet doing exactly what the internet does. Some people think she shouldn&apost be ashamed of writing a hit just because the movie drama turned radioactive. Others say she should be embarrassed, legal battle or not. There are fans who feel for her having to watch her work get dragged through lawsuits and leaked emails, and a lot of folks are pointing out, again, how women often end up absorbing the emotional fallout when Hollywood goes sideways. In short: every reaction you can imagine is happening at once.

Where this leaves Hoover (and everyone else)

Hoover was clear about two things: she&aposs still proud of the book, and she hates what the offscreen chaos has done to real people&apost lives. You can feel the fatigue in how she talks about it. That said, the legal fight is still evolving, and every batch of emails or court filings adds another layer. If it feels like a circus, that&aposs because it is one — and the ring is crowded.