Talk about bad timing. Actress Olivia Wilde was served legal papers while she was onstage at CinemaCon promoting the movie “Don’t Worry Darling” this week. The envelope, which was marked “private and confidential,” was given to her by an unknown individual sitting in front of the stage.
Deadline confirmed Wednesday that the envelope contained custody documents. The pair, who were engaged but never married, share two children, Otis and Daisy. They’ve been broken up since 2020.
A source told Variety that Sudeikis did not know Wilde would be served the papers during the event.
“Papers were drawn up to establish jurisdiction relating to the children of Ms. Wilde and Mr. Sudeikis,” the source said. “Mr. Sudeikis had no prior knowledge of the time or place that the envelope would have been delivered as this would solely be up to the process service company involved and he would never condone her being served in such an inappropriate manner.”
A spokesperson for CinemaCon said they’re planning to “reevaluate” their security protocol in light of what happened.
“To protect the integrity of our studio partners and the talent, we will reevaluate our security protocols,” NATO managing director and head of CinemaCon Mitch Neuhauser told Variety. “We will act accordingly because it’s the right thing to do. We want to do the safe, proper thing.”
Wilde has moved on and is dating pop star Harry Styles now, who is also one of her costars in the film “Don’t Worry Darling.”
Onlookers confirmed that Wilde did not visibly react to the papers even after she read them. Instead, the 38-year-old actress kept her focus on the movie she was promoting, calling it, “a love letter to movies that push the boundaries of our imagination.”
In 2021, a source close to the former couple told People they were focused on peacefully co-parenting.
The insider said Wilde and Sudeikis had “transitioned into a great co-parenting routine,” while another source had previously told People, “The children are the priority and the heart of the family’s relationship.”
The exes were engaged for seven years and renovated a house in Brooklyn together. Ever since the breakup, they’ve been publicly supportive of each other, congratulating one another on social media and even making jokes together.
“Congrats to Jason and the entire Ted Lasso family on your @CriticsChoice wins! So happy for you guys.” Wilde wrote on social media when the series swept the Critics Choice Awards in 2021.
“I hope this means we all keep wearing hoodies when the ceremonies are in person next year,” she joked in the tweet.
Sudeikis even thanked his ex-fiance during the awards acceptance speech.
“I want to thank [my kids’] mom Olivia, who had the initial idea to do this as a TV show, saying, ‘You and Brendan and Joe like doing that so much, you should do it as a movie or TV show,'” the actor said while accepting the award.