'It Ends With Us' Author Colleen Hoover Declares Support For Blake Lively Amid Lawsuit Against Justin Baldoni

Blake Lively received support from "It Ends with Us" author Colleen Hoover following her sexual harassment lawsuit against the film's director, Justin Baldoni.

Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni on Friday, accusing him of engaging in sexual misconduct on the movie's set. However, his attorney responded by calling Lively's allegations "false."

Baldoni has since suffered a setback as the talent agency representing him dropped him, while a resurfaced interview from 2021 saw him admitting to having an "unhealthy" relationship with porn.

After news of Lively's legal complaint against Baldoni made headlines, Hoover took to her Instagram Stories to support the actress. On Saturday, the author posted a picture of her and Lively hugging at an "It Ends with Us" screening.

In the post's caption, Hoover wrote, "@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met."

Hoover concluded, "Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt." She also added a link to The New York Times article on the lawsuit.

In her lawsuit, the 37-year-old actress claimed that Baldoni engaged in sexual misconduct on the movie set. Hence, a meeting was called to address her concerns, and Baldoni and his production company agreed to several of her demands.

Some of Lively's demands included: "No more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni's alleged previous pornography addiction, and no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others."

Lively also claimed that Baldoni and his team led a smear campaign against her soon after the meeting. She cited private emails and texts between him and his crisis PR representatives as evidence of her claims.

The mother of four expressed hope that her 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 legal attorney, Bryan Freedman, didn't take long to respond to Lively's lawsuit. He did so via a statement to The New York Times.

Freedman stated, "It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives."

Baldoni's lawyer also said Lively's allegations against his client in her lawsuit were "yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation."

Freedman described Lively's claims as "completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."

Not long after news of Lively's lawsuit made headlines, he suffered a major blow after WME, the talent agency representing him, dropped him. WME, which also represents Lively, didn't release further details about their actions.

Meanwhile, Baldoni discussed his past porn addiction in a resurfaced interview from July 2021. The film director was a guest on an episode of Sarah Grynberg's "A Life of Greatness" podcast and opened up about his previous "unhealthy" relationship with pornography.

During the interview, Baldoni confessed that he turned to porn for "refuge" when he felt alone, abandoned, or hurt, adding that it served as a source of "dopamine rush."

He revealed per Page Six, "I trained my brain to deal with pain with the dopamine hit. ... But it doesn't mean that I'm not using something in an unhealthy way."

Baldoni also shared, "And I found myself, over the course of my life, going back to looking at images and videos of naked women when I was feeling necessarily bad about myself. And I knew that it was an issue for me when I would tell myself that I don't want to do that."

Rumors of an issue between Baldoni and Lively started making the rounds on August 6, after the pair didn't pose for pictures together at the world premiere of "It Ends with Us" in New York.

Baldoni didn't pose for photographs with any of the film's cast members, though Lively had several shots with her costars. It was also observed that Lively didn't follow Baldoni on Instagram. Fans also noticed that Baldoni did interviews for the movie alone while the other cast members did interviews together.

Despite these and other observations, neither Baldoni nor Lively directly spoke about their rumored feud, though they discussed their experiences during the film's making.