Olivia Wilde has spoken for the first time about being served custody documents on behalf of her former partner Jason Sudeikis while on stage at an industry event in Las Vegas.
The actor and director was promoting her upcoming thriller Don’t Worry Darling at CinemaCon in April when she was served with the papers in a brown envelope as she spoke on stage.
Olivia and Jason, who are parents of eight-year-old son Otis and daughter Daisy, five, were together from 2011 until late 2020.
In a new interview with Variety, Olivia described the incident as “vicious” and “upsetting”, without naming her ex.
“It was my workplace,” she said. “In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack. It was really upsetting. It shouldn’t have been able to happen. There was a huge breach in security, which is really scary.
“The hurdles that you had to jump through to get into that room with several badges, plus special Covid tests that had to be taken days in advance, which gave you wristbands that were necessary to gain access to the event — this was something that required forethought.”
Footage showed the filmmaker appearing surprised after opening the envelope.
Olivia, who is now dating Harry Styles, added: “I hated that this nastiness distracted from the work of so many different people and the studio that I was up there representing
“To try to sabotage that was really vicious. But I had a job to do; I’m not easily distracted.
“But, you know, sadly, it was not something that was entirely surprising to me. I mean, there’s a reason I left that relationship.”
Following the incident at CinemaCon, representatives for Jason confirmed the documents were related to the jurisdiction of the couple’s children, but said the actor had no prior knowledge of how they would be delivered.
His representatives have been contacted for further comment.
In December, Olivia confirmed she was dating Harry Styles and said she was “happier” than she had ever been.
They have been in a relationship since after she cast him in forthcoming psychological thriller, Don’t Worry Darling, opposite fellow British star Florence Pugh.
The filmmaker also used the interview to rubbish claims Harry was being paid more than his female co-star, saying: “There is absolutely no validity to those claims.”