Why Colleen Hoover Declined Writing ‘It Ends With Us’ for Justin Baldoni

Justin Baldoni initially had one author in thoughts to adapt “It Ends With Us” when his Wayfarer Studios optioned the novel in 2019: its creator, Colleen Hoover.

“I mentioned, ‘If anyone ought to write this, it ought to be you. This can be a story that you just made in honor of your mother,’” the filmmaker advised TheWrap. “She thought of it for some time, after which she determined that she was too near it.”

Hoover’s personal mom was a sufferer of home violence, an expertise Hoover has mentioned impressed her to write down the novel in 2016. The now-bestselling creator mentioned that this was the toughest ebook she has ever written, and one which she needed to scrap and rewrite a number of instances as a result of she, too, fell in love with the character that was inevitably the abuser.

Writing within the creator’s observe of the nove, Hoover says that her aim with “It Ends With Us” was to painting the complexities of loving somebody who hurts you and the way leaving that particular person is usually not so simple as it appears.  

“Earlier than I wrote this ebook, I had a number of respect for my mom. Now that I’ve completed it and was in a position to discover a tiny fraction of the ache and battle she went by way of to get to the place she is as we speak, I solely have one factor to say to her. I need to be you once I develop up,” the creator wrote of her mom, who left her abusive father when Hoover was simply three years previous. 

“You’re every little thing to everybody. That may typically be a burden, however you by some means see burdens as blessings. Our total household thanks you.”

Hoover additionally devoted the ebook to her father and thanked them each within the acknowledgements. 

Of her “damned ol’ daddy,” Hoover wrote, “You taught me many issues in life — the best being that we don’t have to finish up the identical particular person we as soon as had been. I promise to not bear in mind you primarily based in your worst days. I’ll bear in mind you primarily based on the perfect, and there have been many.”

Critics of the ebook argued that Hoover romanticizes home violence, particularly after its rise as an attractive romance novel on social media. When Hoover introduced a coloring ebook of floral designs impressed by the novel in 2023, followers had been fast to name her out for monopolizing on trauma. The coloring ebook was scrapped earlier than it was launched. 

Hoover says she by no means meant to signify each story of home violence, however “It Ends With Us” was that of her mom’s.

“Certainly not do I intend for Ryle and Lily’s state of affairs to outline home abuse. Nor do I intend for Ryle’s character to outline the traits of most abusers. Each state of affairs is completely different. Each final result is completely different. I selected to style Lily and Ryle’s story after my mom and father’s,” she wrote. “I usual Ryle after my father in some ways. They’re good-looking, compassionate, humorous and good — however with moments of unforgivable habits.”

Adapting the novel for the display with author, producer and star Justin Baldoni finally went to Christy Corridor, the author and director of “Daddio.”

“It Ends With Us” releases solely in theaters Friday.