When Colleen Hoover took her infamous novel It Ends with Us into the production studio, she didn’t realize at the time that the domestic violence themes presented in her book would soon be tainted by the contrasting opinions of the two stars of the film.
In August, when the film was released, social media posts started expansively spreading about the difference in film approaches between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. While Baldoni emphasized throughout his interviews and social media posts the importance of raising awareness towards those who have experienced domestic violence, people saw Lively’s way of promoting the movie as much more insensitive. People accused her of using this movie as a ploy to promote her new hair-care brand: Blake Brown. She was seen in the press focusing more on the “floral” theme than the themes of domestic violence.
During the premiere, many people online noticed that Baldoni wasn’t seen in any pictures with the rest of the cast and only photographed with his wife. Many fans began to rush to Baldoni’s side when seeing him being “singled” out by the rest of the cast. The alleged feud between the two stars became evident to the public on December 20, 2024, when Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni, and other members on the production set.
Lively, as shown in the New York Times’ article ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine, alleged that Baldoni and Jamey Heath, the lead producer of the film both violated sexual and personal boundaries by entering her trailer uninvited and making inappropriate comments to her. Baldoni continuously denied these remarks, claiming that they didn’t hold any truth or promise. He also sued the New York Times for this article for displaying texts and other online evidence between him and his publicists claiming that they wanted to flood society with a Blake Lively cancelled movement.
The anger and rebuttal arguments continued for Baldoni when on January 16 he countersued Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for $400 million for hijacking the production of the film and for extortion.
Since then, more alleged receipts including voice recordings have come out between this pair, questioning the validity on both sides of their strong and accusatory claims. While previously more public support seemed to be held for Baldoni, there seems to be a divide now on the views of this matter. There are also people who believe that both Baldoni and Lively committed unfair acts towards the other and don’t see either of them as victims. Even though these lawsuits and claims continue to be spread throughout the media, only the outcome of the trial(s) between Lively and Baldoni in 2026 will hold true testament to the future of these two actors.