Olivia Wilde, pictured after being served at CinemaCon in April, gets candid about her custody battle with ex Jason Sudeikis. (Photo: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Olivia Wilde doesn’t mince words when it comes to her custody battle with ex Jason Sudeikis.
The Don’t Worry Darling director talked about receiving legal documents on stage at CinemaCon in April in a new interview with Variety. She described it as “vicious” and suggested the Ted Lasso star was trying to “sabotage” her as she was in the middle of a pitch to sell her film to cinema owners around the world. But Wilde, who shares Otis, 8, and Daisy, 5, with Sudeikis, added that she was not surprised.
“It was my workplace,” said Wilde, who dated Sudeikis for nine years until the end of 2020, and then started dating Don’t Worry Darling star Harry Styles. “In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack. It was very upsetting. It shouldn’t have happened. There was a huge breach in security, which is really appalling. The hurdles you had to overcome. walking into that room with various badges, plus special COVID tests that had to be done days in advance, which gave you the wristbands you needed to get into the event, that was something to be aware of” .
“I hated that this nastiness was distracting from the work of so many different people and the studio that I represented up there,” said Wilde, who took the envelope from the process server and continued with his presentation. “Trying to sabotage that was very vicious. But I had a job to do; I’m not easily distracted… But, you know, unfortunately, it wasn’t something that surprised me at all. I mean, there’s a reason why I left that relationship.”
For his part, Sudeikis said at the time that he had “no prior knowledge of the time or place” Wilde would be served, as it depended on the company’s service process. Also, “I would never accept being treated so inappropriately.” A New York judge has since dismissed Sudeikis’ request that Otis and Daisy reside with him in New York. (Before Wilde and Sudeikis split, they had been splitting their time between London and Los Angeles after leaving New York.)
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Wilde said that “the only people who suffered from the ‘CinemaCon debacle’ were my children, because they’ll have to see it, and they’ll never have to know. For me, it was scary, but the victims were an 8 and 5 year old, and that’s very sad. I chose to become an actress; I willingly stepped into the limelight. But it’s not something my kids asked for. And when my kids they drag, it’s deeply painful.”
Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde, pictured in 2019, were together for nine years and have two children. (Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Wilde also talked about their custody arrangement, saying they split custody with the trade each week. She said that when she is with the children, in London, where she lives, she is devoted to them 24/7, making them breakfast and putting them to bed.
“They are my world,” he said. “They are my best friends.”
Wilde just wishes she had more privacy as her family continues to transition into their new form.
“The last two years, my family has gone through this kind of restructuring and revolution that should be an entirely personal experience,” he said. “And it’s not. The most painful element has been women shaming me for making a decision that was for my own health and happiness.”
Wilde was coy in the interview, and also talked about why she fired Shia LaBeouf, who came with no shortage of baggage, from Don’t Worry Darling. Styles was his replacement playing opposite Florence Pugh.
“I say that as someone who is an admirer of his work,” Wilde said of LaBeouf. “His process wasn’t conducive to the ethos I demand in my productions. He has a process that somehow seems to require a combative energy, and I personally don’t think that’s conducive to the best performances.” .
After LaBeouf was fired, FKA Twigs filed a sexual assault lawsuit against LaBeouf, her former partner.
“A lot of things came to light after that that really worried me about his behavior,” Wilde said. “I find myself wishing her well and moving forward because I believe in restorative justice. But for our film, what she really needed was an incredibly supportive energy. Particularly with a film like this, I knew I was going to ask Florence to she was in very vulnerable situations, and my priority was to make her feel safe and make her feel supported.”
And while there have been no shortage of rumors about Wilde’s rift with Pugh, the House alum praised her, saying she was “bewitched by” Pugh in the 2019 film Midsommar. love the movie, but I loved it. I said, ‘Well, it’s extraordinary. She is clearly the most exciting young actress working today.”
It should be noted that Pugh declined to be interviewed for the story. It has been speculated that Pugh felt that Wilde and Styles’ romance overshadowed the project. Pugh herself criticized her sex scenes being so prominent in the film’s first trailer.
“There’s been a lot going on that I largely don’t pay attention to,” Wilde said of the rumored drama. “But the absurdity of the made-up clickbait and subsequent backlash about a non-existent pay disparity between our leading and supporting actors really upset me. . I’m a woman who’s been in this business for over 20 years, and it’s something that I have fought for myself and for others, especially to be a director. There is absolutely no validity to these claims.”
Wilde also opened up about her romance with Styles, which sparked on set when her relationship with Sudeikis ended. They were first seen together holding hands in January 2021.
“I’m not going to say anything about it because I’ve never seen a relationship benefit from being dragged into the public arena,” Wilde said. “We both do everything we can to protect our relationship; I think it’s from experience, but also from deep love.”
He criticized the way their relationship has been covered, and the double standards he sees. She is judged for dating a younger man, as Styles is 10 years her junior, and is labeled as an absentee mother when she dates him.
“When people don’t see me with my kids, it’s always, ‘How dare you?'” Wilde said. “I’ve never seen anyone say that about a guy. And if he’s with his son, he’s a hero.”
Wilde and Styles addressed the “hateful energy” towards their relationship in an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this week: