Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde, once one of Hollywood’s most admired couples, have faced a highly public and contentious custody battle since their breakup in November 2020.
After nine years together and two children—Otis, born in 2014, and Daisy, born in 2016—their split marked the beginning of a turbulent journey involving legal disputes, financial disagreements, and deeply personal grievances aired through court filings and the media. While both initially expressed a desire to co-parent amicably, the following years have suggested that achieving that goal has been far from simple.
In April 2023, Olivia Wilde accused her ex-fiancé Jason Sudeikis of not paying any child support, despite repeated requests from her legal team to establish a temporary financial agreement. In court documents revealed by The Blast, Wilde stated that although the former couple had been jointly covering certain expenses like school tuition, she was solely bearing the cost of all other essential needs when the children were in her care.
This included food, clothing, childcare, extracurricular activities, and transportation. Wilde emphasized her desire for child support not out of greed, but to ensure she could provide for their children in a manner that reflected Sudeikis’s much higher standard of living.
In the same documents, she also requested that he cover her legal fees, citing not only the vast difference in their financial situations but also what she described as aggressive and unnecessary legal actions taken by his counsel that forced her to incur additional legal expenses.
Just a month prior, in March 2023, Wilde accused Sudeikis of acting in bad faith throughout the proceedings. According to court filings obtained by the Daily Mail, Wilde claimed that Sudeikis was using litigation as a weapon, trying to “litigate her into debt” by filing numerous motions that forced her to spend more money on legal defenses. She argued that he could afford to prolong the case indefinitely, while she could not.
Furthermore, Wilde accused him of purposely withholding information about a significant court date, which resulted in her missing the hearing entirely. She labeled his behavior as underhanded and accused him of using intimidation and trickery rather than working in the best interest of their children. Her frustration was evident as she expressed deep confusion over how such tactics could be seen as beneficial for their family.
The tension between the two first became glaringly public in April 2022, when Wilde was served custody papers while presenting her film Don’t Worry Darling at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The event was both high-profile and career-defining for Wilde, who was directing the film starring then-boyfriend Harry Styles.
A man walked up to her onstage and handed her an envelope labeled “Personal and Confidential,” which was later confirmed to contain custody documents from Sudeikis. Wilde expressed in legal filings that she found this move not only professionally embarrassing but also harmful to their children, calling it an “outrageous legal tactic” and claiming it was a calculated effort to sabotage her in a public forum.
Sudeikis, in response, stated that he did not intend for the documents to be served in such a manner and had only wanted to avoid them being delivered at Styles’s residence, where their children might have been present.
In August 2022, Wilde discussed the legal and emotional challenges she was facing in an interview with Variety. She revisited the CinemaCon incident, describing it as not just shocking and inappropriate, but also damaging to their children, who were indirectly dragged into the chaos. Wilde explained that while she had chosen a public life, her children had not, and it was deeply painful for her to see them entangled in a situation they never asked to be part of.
Around the same time, a New York judge denied Sudeikis’s petition to move Otis and Daisy to New York City, affirming that the children’s home state was California. This ruling was a setback for Sudeikis, who had filed the motion in October 2021, stating that he wanted to spend a year in New York and have the children live with him during his break from filming Ted Lasso in London.
Wilde argued that this violated a previous agreement to let the kids finish their school year in Los Angeles. She alleged that Sudeikis had suddenly changed his plans and filed the petition without her agreement, further deepening the legal rift between the two.
Despite these legal battles, Wilde and Sudeikis originally intended to maintain a cordial relationship for the sake of their children. Following their split in late 2020, sources close to the couple had indicated that they were committed to co-parenting peacefully.
Wilde even began dating Harry Styles in early 2021, and although this new relationship drew media attention, she did not publicly disparage Sudeikis. However, as court proceedings unfolded over the years, the narrative shifted from cooperation to confrontation, with both parties taking increasingly adversarial positions.
Throughout the ongoing legal struggle, the welfare of Otis and Daisy has remained a central theme in Wilde’s statements. She has repeatedly emphasized that her concerns stem from a desire to protect her children and ensure that they are not harmed by the adults’ conflict.
Whether speaking out about being served legal papers in public or criticizing Sudeikis’s financial conduct, Wilde consistently framed her arguments around the emotional and practical well-being of their kids.
Sudeikis, on the other hand, has largely remained silent in public about the details of the custody battle, aside from addressing the manner in which Wilde was served.
His representatives have not responded to many of Wilde’s accusations, and his court filings have not been as publicly discussed. Still, his repeated legal motions and the nature of his filings suggest a very different vision for how their post-relationship parenting arrangement should be handled.
As of now, the answer to whether Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis are successfully co-parenting after their split is complex. While both continue to be present in their children’s lives and share certain responsibilities like school tuition, the persistent legal disputes, allegations of bad faith, financial disagreements, and public embarrassment suggest a strained and challenging co-parenting dynamic.
The goal of amicable co-parenting appears to be far from realized, at least for the time being. Instead, the picture that emerges is one of two parents locked in a bitter legal conflict, each claiming to act in their children’s best interest but struggling to find common ground on how to do so.
