Colleen Hoover, author of It Ends With Us, has deleted all traces of Blake Lively from her Instagram account, including a photo where the actress had tagged her. The author quietly reappeared on the social media platform on Wednesday, as revealed exclusively by DailyMail.com.

The 45-year-old Hoover penned the novel in 2016, which was later made into a film in 2024. The movie is currently embroiled in a contentious legal dispute involving Lively, 37, and the film’s director and co-star, Justin Baldoni, 41.

According to Baldoni, Lively allegedly used her considerable influence to convince Hoover to support her cause. This comes after the Texas-based author released a statement backing the actress following her lawsuit for sexual harassment filed in December.

Previously, the mom-of-three had enjoyed a warm relationship with Baldoni, with emails included in the $400million countersuit filed last month showing Hoover had told him ‘there is no one better for the project’ and suggesting he play the male lead.

But as the legal fight ramped up three weeks ago, Hoover deleted her Instagram account and with it the December statement that described Lively as ‘honest, kind, supportive and patient’.

Now her page has been relaunched with all traces of both Baldoni and Lively removed, among them, photos taken during the promotion of the ill-starred movie which premiered in August.  

Colleen Hoover has returned to Instagram after deactivating her account last month in the wake of the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni feud over It Ends With Us  

The best-selling author, 45, who sold the film rights to her book to Justin Baldoni, publicly sided with his co-star Blake Lively when she accused him of sexual harassment in December 

Instead, the best-selling author appears to be focused on the upcoming adaptation of her 2018 thriller Verity which will star Anne Hathaway as the eponymous female lead.

Hoover’s decision to return to social media comes as Lively and her legal team were dealt a minor setback in the court fight with Baldoni and were denied an extension to file their amended complaint.

During a hearing in New York last week, Lively’s lawyers said they intended to file an amended complaint naming new parties by Valentine’s Day.

But in a three-page letter sent to Judge Lewis J. Liman on Monday, attorney Michael Gottlieb asked for an extra two weeks to complete the changes.

That request, although not opposed by Baldoni’s legal team, was denied by Judge Liman who allowed the actress’ team just one extra day, with the amendments now expected to be filed on Monday.

A source close to Lively told DailyMail.com in a statement on Wednesday: ‘We are pleased with the Court’s ruling, which granted most of the relief we had sought. Adjustments to the parties’ scheduling requests are not controversial—they are typical and inevitable in litigation. 

‘We have no concerns with filing Ms. Lively’s amended Complaint on or before February 18. We will be adding additional evidence to the amended complaint.’ 

Hoover has returned to Instagram, but not without scrubbing her photos with Lively from her profile, DailyMail.com has learned

Her profile only contains a handful of photos from the promotion period of the film last year, but none with the movie’s main stars 

Last month Justin Baldoni launched a $250million libel action against the New York Times – who was the first to report on Blake Lively’s first complaint against her co-star on December 21

DailyMail.com has reached out to Colleen Hoover for comment.  

The legal fight between Lively and Baldoni has now ground on for almost two months and kicked off when the actress sued her former co-star for sex harassment just before Christmas.

That lawsuit was swiftly followed by a bombshell New York Times feature based on its contents and included text messages exchanged by Baldoni’s publicists that allegedly showed them planning a smear campaign to discredit her.

Baldoni retaliated with a $250million defamation suit against the paper and then, last month, filed a countersuit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, that accused them of attempting to ‘hijack’ the movie.

The enormous 240-page filing also claimed Lively’s team had selectively edited text conversations to leave critical context out and included a bombshell conversation in which the actress compared herself to Game of Thrones character Khaleesi and referred to Reynolds and best friend Taylor Swift as ‘my dragons’.

DailyMail.com subsequently obtained raw footage of a dancing scene. in her suit, Lively claimed microphones had been switched off enabling the actor to nuzzle her neck with his nose and tell her ‘you smell so good’ – a key plank of her sex harassment case.

Hoover supported Lively when the actress’s allegations against Baldoni first came to light in December, sharing a photo of the two embracing and calling her ‘honest, kind, supportive, and patient’, along with a link to the New York Times report on her complaint

It Ends With Us premiered in theaters on August 9, but Hoover’s Instagram only features one post of her doing press for the film from the previous day, when she appeared on Watch What Happens Live 

The release of the film became overshadowed by the drama between the two main stars off-screen, which has now culminated into a full blown legal battle  

But the video cast doubt on the claim and proved that Baldoni’s microphone was not switched off with audio showing the pair had spent most of the time discussing their significant others.

The smell good comment was also revealed to be part of a conversation about Lively’s fake tan.

A voicemail obtained by DailyMail.com also shed further light on the much-disputed rooftop scene that was edited by Lively and prompted her dragon comment when Baldoni failed to shower her changes with praise.

In it, a clearly rattled Baldoni is heard offering the actress a groveling apology and noting ‘I fell short’ over his response to her changes.

He also addressed the dragon threat directly, saying: ‘Damn right, you got great friends. If that’s how you felt and they knew that. F***.

‘We should all have friends like that, aside from the fact they’re two of the most creative people on the planet… The three of you guys together is unbelievable. Talk about energy. Force. All three of you.’

Since then, Baldoni’s team have gone on to launch a website about the legal case that includes pages of evidence.

Thelawsuitinfo.com went live with links to an amended version of Baldoni’s complaint and a ‘timeline of relevant events’ charting how the feud developed during filming for their 2024 adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s acclaimed novel.

The cache included texts between Baldoni and Reynolds in which the latter said he ‘adored’ the director and flirty texts sent to him by Lively.

‘It’s important to point out that nobody is monetizing off this. It’s simply a landing page to have access to legal documents that are already public,’ a source told DailyMail.com. 

‘This is far from a provocation. In fact, it’s yet more evidence that Justin and his team intend to be continually transparent.’