Actress Olivia Wilde is disappointed but not surprised that her ex-fiancé Jason Sudeikis made a public spectacle of serving her with custody papers while she was promoting the new movie “Don’t Worry Darling” at CinemaCon.
“Sadly, it was not something that was entirely surprising to me,” the 38-year-old actress said during a recent interview with Variety. “I mean, there’s a reason I left that relationship.”
Sudeikis and Wilde dated from 2011 until 2020 and had two children together during that time. Their custody battle is ongoing.
“It was my workplace,” the actress said of getting served while sitting onstage. “In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack. It was really upsetting. It shouldn’t have been able to happen.”
She went on to describe how the move would have required planning and the assumption that the person could circumvent security protocols. To date, Sudeikis has maintained he didn’t know his ex would get served in that manner.
“There was a huge breach in security, which is really scary,” she continued. “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.”
When she was handed the envelope, Wilde accepted it and kept speaking, but the event quickly made headlines.
“I hated that this nastiness distracted from the work of so many different people and the studio that I was up there representing,” she told Variety. “To try to sabotage that was really vicious. But I had a job to do; I’m not easily distracted.”
Ultimately, the mom of two says she feels worst for her children and how the custody drama is affecting them now and will in the future.
“The only people who suffered were my kids, because they’ll have to see that, and they shouldn’t ever have to know that happened,” Wilde continued. “For me, it was appalling, but the victims were an 8- and 5-year-old, and that’s really sad.”
She said, “I chose to become an actress; I willingly walked into the spotlight. But it’s not something my children have asked for. And when my kids are dragged into it, it’s deeply painful.”
At another point in the interview, Wilde said she’s very involved in her children’s lives, making them breakfast every morning and driving them to school herself. She said her kids are her “best friends.”