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

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

“I said, ‘If anybody should write this, it should be you. This is a story that you made in honor of your mom,’” the filmmaker told TheWrap. “She thought about it for a while, and then she decided that she was too close to it.”

Hoover’s own mother was a victim of domestic violence, an experience Hoover has said inspired her to write the novel in 2016. The now-bestselling author said that this was the hardest book she has ever written, and one that she wanted to scrap and rewrite several times because she, too, fell in love with the character that was inevitably the abuser.

Writing in the author’s note of the nove, Hoover says that her goal with “It Ends With Us” was to portray the complexities of loving someone who hurts you and how leaving that person is often not as simple as it seems.  

“Before I wrote this book, I had a lot of respect for my mother. Now that I’ve finished it and was able to explore a tiny fraction of the pain and struggle she went through to get to where she is today, I only have one thing to say to her. I want to be you when I grow up,” the author wrote of her mother, who left her abusive father when Hoover was just three years old. 

“You are everything to everyone. That can sometimes be a burden, but you somehow see burdens as blessings. Our entire family thanks you.”

Hoover also dedicated the book to her father and thanked them both in the acknowledgements. 

Of her “damned ol’ daddy,” Hoover wrote, “You taught me many things in life — the greatest being that we don’t have to end up the same person we once were. I promise not to remember you based on your worst days. I will remember you based on the best, and there were many.”

Critics of the book argued that Hoover romanticizes domestic violence, especially after its rise as a sexy romance novel on social media. When Hoover announced a coloring book of floral designs inspired by the novel in 2023, fans were quick to call her out for monopolizing on trauma. The coloring book was scrapped before it was released. 

Hoover says she never intended to represent every story of domestic violence, but “It Ends With Us” was that of her mother’s.

“By no means do I intend for Ryle and Lily’s situation to define domestic abuse. Nor do I intend for Ryle’s character to define the characteristics of most abusers. Every situation is different. Every outcome is different. I chose to fashion Lily and Ryle’s story after my mother and father’s,” she wrote. “I fashioned Ryle after my father in many ways. They are handsome, compassionate, funny and smart — but with moments of unforgivable behavior.”

Adapting the novel for the screen with writer, producer and star Justin Baldoni ultimately went to Christy Hall, the writer and director of “Daddio.”

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