"That was really vicious." Why everyone's talking about Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis.

For the first time, Olivia Wilde has acknowledged the highly publicised custody issues between her and her ex, Jason Sudeikis.

In a new Variety profile to promote her upcoming directorial release, Don't Worry Darling, Wilde discussed the April incident in which she was served with legal papers while on stage at CinemaCon.

"It was my workplace," she said. "In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack."

Wilde said the level of security around the event meant that it would have been a pre-planned, well-thought out decision from the server to reach her there.

"I hated that this nastiness distracted from the work of so many different people and the studio that I was up there representing," she said. "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."

In the profile, Wilde said her children were her "world" and she hated that this put an unnecessary spotlight on them.

"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," she said.

"For me, it was appalling, but the victims were an eight- and five-year-old, and that's really sad. 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."

It comes only weeks after tabloids began to dig into the legal battle between the two exes, publishing details of their custody arrangement.

According to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail in August, Wilde claimed Sudeikis used "outrageous legal tactics" while serving her the papers. 

"Jason's actions were clearly intended to threaten me and catch me off guard," she alleged in the filing, Page Six reported. "He could have served me discreetly, but instead he chose to serve me in the most aggressive manner possible."

Soon after, a source told People the couple "don't speak".

"She and Jason don't speak to each other, so they have help communicating about the custody schedule," the insider told the publication.

"She hopes they can figure out the best living situation for everyone."

Okay, wait. What happened? 

In April, Wilde appeared at CinemaCon, a major event on the industry calendar where studios often unveil details on their upcoming, must-see box office features.

It marked a major kick-off of promotion for Don't Worry Darling, coinciding with the first teaser image showing Harry Styles (Wilde's current boyfriend) and Florence Pugh lying in bed together as the young 1950s couple.

On stage, she praised Pugh and Styles, and talked up her passion for the film calling it a "love letter to the movies that pushed boundaries of ambition" in front of 4000 industry insiders, media and executives. 

Then, someone walked up on stage and handed her a manila envelope.

"Is this for me?" Wilde asked. "Is this a script?"

Image: Getty. 

She opened the envelope, read the top page and said "Okay, got it. Thank you", before returning to her prepared comments without missing a beat. 

She continued her speech without appearing too rattled, despite what was probably a major shock.

It was a bizarre moment, playing out among the crowd with a frenzied confusion like something straight out of an absurdist Hollywood screenplay.

Afterwards, rumours swirled about the contents of the envelope until Deadline confirmed she had been served legal documents relating to the custody of her and Sudeikis' two children. 

What does 'served' mean?

It's similar to what we see in TV and movies: being served means you are being summoned to court.

An independent person, called a process server, is paid to deliver a subpoena or summons. The papers need to be delivered in person and there is usually a deadline.

If the process server has trouble tracking down the person they need to serve - and Wilde has been spending a lot of time in London recently, so that is a possibility - then they can go to extreme lengths like this to get the documents where they need to be.

Often, the person on whose behalf the papers are being served (so, Sudeikis in this situation) aren't aware of exactly how the papers are making their way there.

A source told Variety that Sudeikis was just as surprised by this very public moment as everyone else.

"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."

Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis' relationship.

Wilde and Sudeikis met at a Saturday Night Live finale party in 2011. At the time, Wilde had separated from her ex-husband Tao Ruspoli and Sudeikis had split from his filmmaker ex-wife Kay Cannon.

After that, they kept running into each other for months until Wilde's friend finally gave the actor her number.

Two years after meeting, the pair announced they were engaged in 2013. 

Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis in January 2020. Image: Getty. 

A year later in April 2014, the actors welcomed their first child together, Otis. They later welcomed their second child, Daisy, in October 2016.

When news of the couple's split surfaced in November 2020, reports claimed that the break-up was "amicable".

In early 2021, Sudeikis thanked his ex-partner in his speech at the Critics Choice Awards.

"I want to thank my kids, Otis and Daisy. I want to thank their mum, Otis and Daisy’s mum, Olivia, who had the initial idea for this as a TV show," Sudeikis said.

Likewise, Wilde congratulated Sudeikis for the win on Twitter, writing: "I hope this means we all keep wearing hoodies when the ceremonies are in person next year."

But in a July 2021 GQ profile, Sudeikis admitted that he still doesn't have clarity about the end of their relationship.

"I'll have a better understanding of why in a year," he shared, "and an even better one in two, and an even greater one in five, and it'll go from being, you know, a book of my life to becoming a chapter to a paragraph to a line to a word to a doodle."

The Ted Lasso star also acknowledged that the last year had been hard, and that he's still trying to understand what to "take away" from his split from Wilde.

"That's an experience that you either learn from or make excuses about. You take some responsibility for it, hold yourself accountable for what you do, but then also endeavour to learn something beyond the obvious from it," he said.

"I think if you have the opportunity to hit a rock bottom, however you define that, you can become 412 bones or you can land like an Avenger. I personally have chosen to land like an Avenger."

What now?

Wellllllll... there is obviously some sort of legal issue going on between the former couple.

But besides that (which is definitely not our business and will hopefully be resolved without any further issues for the sake of Otis and Daisy), the incident raised security questions.

"It was really upsetting. It shouldn't have been able to happen," Wilde told Variety.

"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."

At the time of the incident, CinemaCon said it would reevaluate its safety protocols.

"To protect the integrity of our studio partners and the talent, we will reevaluate our security protocols," 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."

Don't Worry Darling will be released in cinemas in September and you can read alllll the drama surrounding it here. 

This article was originally published in April 2022, and was updated in August 2022. 

Feature image: Getty.

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