Author Colleen Hoover is seemingly removing herself from the narrative of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni‘s legal drama.
Fans noticed that Hoover’s Instagram account is no longer active amid daily developments in the actors’ lawsuits against each other. The trouble began when Lively, 37, and Baldoni, 40, came together to adapt Hoover’s book It Ends With Us for the big screen.
The movie, which was released in August 2024, follows Lily Bloom (Lively) as her relationship with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincard (Baldoni) becomes abusive. She eventually finds an ally in her high school love interest, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar). Throughout the press tour last summer, Baldoni — who directed the film — and Lively were not seen promoting the film together.
Following speculation about tension between the costars, Lively filed paperwork in December 2024 accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment, creating a “hostile work environment” and causing her “severe emotional distress” while working together.
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In a statement provided to The New York Times, Lively said, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman called Lively’s claims “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious,” alleging in a statement to Us Weekly that Lively filed the lawsuit to “fix her negative reputation” and “rehash a narrative” regarding the production of It Ends With Us. (Lively served as a producer on the movie.)
Freedman went on to claim that Lively made “multiple demands and threats” throughout filming, which included “threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.”
At the time, Hoover, 45, showed her support by publicly praising Lively, writing via her Instagram Story, “Blake Lively you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met. Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”
Last month, Baldoni was one of 10 plaintiffs who launched a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times for its coverage of Lively’s accusations. A spokesperson for the The New York Times told Us that the outlet is planning to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
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Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios later filed a lawsuit against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and Lively’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, seeking $400 million in damages. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month, included accusations of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy and other claims.
“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,” Freedman told Us on Thursday, January 16. “It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret. Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”
Lively, meanwhile, slammed the legal action taken against her.
“This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its associates is another chapter in the abuser playbook. This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender,” the statement read. “Wayfarer has opted to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch meritless lawsuits, and threaten litigation to overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations.”
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Lively’s legal team accused Baldoni and his associates of trying to “shift” the focus onto her instead.
“They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer. The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s cut of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success,” the statement continued.
The statement concluded: “Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing. In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”
