The It Ends With Us movie drama has captured the attention of the internet. Blake Lively and her co-star and director Justin Baldoni, who seem to have gotten into some massive feud on the set of the film, causing pretty much the entire cast to avoid the director amid the press tour and premiere.
Allegations have been swirling left and right about what happened. Some are blaming Blake for being rude, with critics saying she has been downplaying the seriousness of the film’s subject matter in her marketing efforts. Meanwhile, others are claiming Justin exhibited some “borderline abusive” behavior on set. It’s a mess… but very few are speaking out.
For instance, the book’s author Colleen Hoover has remained fairly quiet through the whole controversy. But it turns out she (or rather, her family) has a dark past with icky allegations too! Not only has she long been accused of glorifying abuse in her books, including in IEWU which was first published in 2016, but a resurfaced allegation about her son might have you looking at this latest drama and her silence differently!
Related: Sony CEO Voices Support For Blake — And Shades Justin Amid Rift!
Two years ago, it turns out, her son Levi was accused of sexually assaulting a minor — and Colleen defended him! Here’s the deal. On February 12, 2022, an X (Twitter) user named @theonottlovebot chimed onto a thread criticizing Colleen, alleging in a since-deleted tweet:
“Her son also sexually harassed me and she aired me and she blocked me when i spoke up about it to her”
The user elaborated in a follow-up tweet, adding:
“Long story short, we were friends on [Snapchat] and s**t and like every day we would message cause we’re friends right and like this was when I was 16 and he was fully aware of how old I was I was cause I always talked about the fact I was still in school.”
Per Distractify, the claims were made against Levi (one of Colleen’s three sons), who would have been 21 at the time, but the user didn’t give any other details. That said, she provided a since-deleted screenshot showing proof that she DMed the writer on Instagram to tell her about this alleged interaction with her son, in which she apologized for the “disturbing” news but wanted to bring it to Colleen’s attention. She insisted she wasn’t “looking for anything” and “understood if [Colleen] just ignore[d]” the message. See HERE.
Several months later, this allegation was brought up as one of the reasons to boycott the Verity author’s books (along with the argument that she was glorifying and romanticizing abuse and domestic violence in her writing).
Eventually, Colleen spoke out — and hit back at the allegations! She took to her private Facebook group called “Colleen Hoover’s CoHorts” on November 18, 2022 to clarify things, writing per Distractify:
“Things being said about my son aren’t accurate. People are commenting that I blocked a girl for informing me that my son sexually assaulted her when she was sixteen. This absolutely did not happen, and this is not even initially what was said by this person.”
For the record, in the DM screenshot, it is not clear what allegation the Twitter user made as that portion is cut off. All that can be seen is an explanation about why she was reaching out to the novelist. That said, as the allegations spread online, it does seem like they intensified with some claiming sexual assault had occurred (though that doesn’t appear to be in the user’s initial complaint). The 44-year-old explained her side of the story, adding:
“My son and a girl were online friends for several months. They never met in person. He said something to her in a message that made her uncomfortable (he asked her to send him a pic), so she messaged me about it. I did not read this message, but she thought I did, and it understandably upset her that I didn’t respond. She then posted on Twitter that my son asked her for a pic. AS SOON as I found out about this months ago, I reached out to her.”
She continued:
“We discussed what happened, I apologized to her and thanked her for bringing this to my attention, and I offered to send her our home address and lawyer info should she want it. I held my son accountable for sending a message to her that was inappropriate. I addressed it directly with her and with my son.”
The mother of three concluded:
“I didn’t address it publicly because 1) I feel it’s not my place to talk about someone else’s experience and 2) everyone who knows me here has seen me parent these boys and hold them accountable. I’m sad this happened. You guys know I’ve tried my best to raise my children with respect, and to show respect.”
No further details about the situation emerged and it doesn’t appear as though any legal action was ever taken. That said, the rumors have continued to swirl — especially this month as the It Ends With Us movie was released and backlash about Colleen and her books kicked up again. It’s certainly not the best look coming from someone who wrote about DV, that’s for sure!
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