Colleen Hoover skipped out on the premiere of Regretting You, based on her 2019 romance novel of the same name, because she’s getting surgery.
Hoover was notably absent from Monday night’s Los Angeles premiere of the film, which follows Morgan Grant (portrayed by Allison Williams) and her daughter Clara (played by McKenna Grace), confronting family secrets after a devastating accident.
The author confirmed her absence from the premiere in a Friday Instagram post, revealing she will also be missing upcoming events for the film. In addition, she won’t be moderating the Los Angeles stop on Lukas Gage’s book tour for his new memoir, I Wrote This for Attention, which is scheduled for later this month.
“I’m super bummed, but am having an unavoidable surgery and can’t travel for a while. But please show up for @lukasgage and also for @regrettingyoumovie,” she wrote, noting that author Anna Todd will now be moderating Gage’s book signing in Los Angeles.
“And please tag me in all your @regrettingyoumovie posts when it releases next week!” Hoover added. “I’ll live vicariously through you guys. So sad to miss this movie release and premiere, but so grateful to all the actors and the team who put this together.”
Hoover did not share further details about the surgery.
In Regretting You, which is based on Hoover’s book, Morgan’s husband, Chris, dies in a tragic car accident, causing a strain in her relationship with her daughter, Clara. Morgan’s sister, Jenny, was also in the car with Chris and died during the accident, leading Morgan to question the nature of the relationship between her sister and her husband.
The film also follows Clara navigating her relationship with her boyfriend, Miller, amid her grief.
In addition to Williams and Grace, the film stars Willa Fitzgerald, Scott Eastwood, Mason Thames, and Dave Franco.
Hoover is stepping back from the Regretting You press tour amid ongoing legal matters between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, who starred in the 2024 film adaptation of her novel, It Ends With Us.
Lively filed a lawsuit in December 2024, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment and a “social manipulation” campaign against her, stemming from their time working together on the film. He denied the allegations. Baldoni responded by filing his own $400 million defamation countersuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist, which has since been dismissed by a judge.
The ongoing legal battle is expected to go to trial in March 2026.
A month after the lawsuit was filed, Hoover took a break from social media. She deactivated her Instagram account in January and, in the interim, appeared to have erased all mention of Lively and Baldoni.
When she returned to Instagram in March, she spoke candidly about her financial situation and hit back at rumors she was retiring from writing and firing her staff. She also said that all merchandise on her website had been reduced to just $10 per item, claiming her “boss” made the change.
“That’s, like, five times cheaper than what I paid for each item, which means by the end of the day today I’m going to be broke as s***,” she said in an Instagram Story at the time. “Well, I can’t retire now because now I’m gonna be in the hole by 5 p.m. Even if you hate me, you should go buy a piece because it’s a very, kind of, bad thing.”
Regretting You will be released in U.S. theaters October 24.
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