Jana Kramer Disagrees With Blake Lively’s ‘It Ends With Us’ DV Messaging: ‘It Does Define You’

As a survivor of domestic violence, Jana Kramer has some thoughts about Blake Lively’s It Ends With Us promotion.

“I would love the messaging to go to DV with media, instead of talking about riffs and everything else. The movie is about domestic violence,” Kramer, 40, stated on the Monday, August 26, episode of her “Whine Down” podcast. “I haven’t seen the movie. I have a tough time watching movies that deal with domestic violence given my history with it.”

Lively, 37, has faced some criticism for not focusing enough on the film’s domestic violence messaging in press for the movie. Kramer, for her part, was under the assumption It Ends With Us was a “rom-com, bring your girls to the movie[s]” type of film based on its promotion before being informed of the story.

“Then I started hearing stuff about the interviews, and for me, I was just, like, it made me sad because I just want the messaging to be about domestic violence and how to help people and how to get help,” she said.

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Based on author Colleen Hoover’s 2016 book of the same name, It Ends With Us follows Lily Bloom (Lively) as her relationship with a neurosurgeon named Ryle (Justin Baldoni) turns abusive around the same time she reconnects with her childhood love, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar).

Kramer went on to note that “it’s hard for people to talk about domestic violence when they haven’t, themselves, been, in real life, had the hands of domestic violence on them.” She added: “So, for people to say it doesn’t define you, it does define you. … It has made me who I am. And though people can say, ‘It doesn’t define you,’ it is one of the biggest pieces of me, is domestic violence, and has been the biggest thread in my life.”

Kramer’s comment was seemingly in reference to BBC News' interview with Lively at the film’s August 8 London premiere, during which she stated that Lily is “not defined” by her domestic violence experiences. “She defines herself, and I think that that’s deeply empowering to remind people that no-one else can define you. No experience can define you. You define you,” Lively explained of the character at the time.

Kramer has previously spoken out about suffering abuse during her marriage to Michael Gambino in 2004. He was convicted of premeditated attempted murder in 2005 and was sentenced to six years in prison before he died by suicide in 2012.

Lively — who has made headlines for her rumored on-set feud with costar and director Baldoni, 40 — also faced backlash for her response on how she would handle a fan approaching her about their own domestic violence situations during an August interview with Chicago-based reporter Jake Hamilton.

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“Maybe asking for, like, my address, or my phone number. Or, like, location share?! I could just location-share you and then we could …” she replied before trailing off.

She continued: “What’s been beautiful about this movie is that, unfortunately, we all know at least someone … who have experience[d] this. The beauty of this has been to see people and to see this movie alongside women who haven’t experienced this — thank goodness — go, ‘Woah. I fell in love too.’”

Hamilton later reacted to his viral interview with Lively, stating on a local news broadcast earlier this month, “After she made those comments about my initial question, she did go on to answer the question. That part isn’t necessarily ending up in anyone’s viral TikTok videos, but it does just yield a bigger conversation of an actor who does press for a movie about such a serious topic. You gotta talk about it.”

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Following the film’s August 9 premiere, Lively took to Instagram to share domestic violence resources with her fans. “1 in 4 women aged 18 and older in the US alone have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime,” the caption read. “ Intimate partner violence affects all genders, including more than 12 million people every year in the United States. Everyone deserves relationships free from domestic violence. The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides confidential support 24/7/265.”

If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.