Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde have been co-parenting their two children, Otis and Daisy, since their split in 2020. On Tuesday, Jason talked with ET at the season 3 premiere of his Apple TV+ series, Ted Lasso, about how the former couple have been handling co-parenting and how Jason’s real-life family lifestyle helped him act as a parent on his show.
ET’s Nischelle Turner asked Jason if his kids knew how hard he worked for his TV series, to which he responded, “I don’t know if they know how hard, they know how often.”
“They know Brendan [Hunt] and Joe [Kelly] real well, and so they see how much we hang out, and laugh and enjoy each other’s company,” he said of their relationship with the show’s co-creators, “that any of us get the opportunity to find a job where you have so much fun doing it, and if that’s the example that myself and Olivia, provide for them, then I’m happy about that. It doesn’t have to be in this business necessarily, but if they find – Daisy wants to be about 10 different things.”
Jason ensures that his kids are familiar with his work by building a relationship with them and his cast and crew. Because of this, they not only watch the show, but they enjoy it.
“[My kids] like the show, they watch the show. They know all these guys,” Jason said. “They know these guys and gals as real people, not just as their characters. It’s nice. It’s one big happy family.”
In the show, part of Sudeikis’ titular character’s role is being a long-distance parent, which he relates to and is able to portray because of his real-life circumstances as a parent who raises his children separate from their mother.
“I don’t think I ever could have portrayed a parent, me personally, effectively in a way that I would have believed until becoming one” he admitted. “I don’t think I’m a good enough actor to do that kind of make-believe without having that kind of love that enters your life when you have kids.”
Jason and Olivia never married, but were engaged for seven years and welcomed two children in their time together. Their split in 2020 initially wasn’t messy and they seemed to be amicable between the two.
In 2021, although they had both reportedly started dating other people, Sudeikis still thanked Wilde for her contribution to the conceptualization of Ted Lasso after winning a Critics Choice Award.
“I want to thank [my kids’] mom Olivia, who had the initial idea to do this as a TV show, saying, ‘You and Brendan [Hunt] and Joe [Kelly] like doing that so much, you should do it as a movie or TV show,’” he said during his acceptance speech.”
Shortly following this event, after Sudeikis had already shared he was “heartbroken” over their split, he opened up more in an interview with GQ about what the experience of their break up was like for him and how he’s moving forward.
“I’ll have a better understanding of why in a year, 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,” he said, adding, “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 endeavor to learn something beyond the obvious from it.”
Things seemed to be relatively okay between Wilde and Sudeikis before last April, when Olivia was served legal papers while onstage at CinemaCon that established “jurisdiction relating to [their] children”.
According to a source, per People, Olivia was “surprised and embarrassed” when she received the papers, and would later file to dismiss the petition for custody of their children.
In the court documents, she stated, “Jason’s actions were clearly intended to threaten me and catch me off guard. He could have served me discreetly, but instead he chose to serve me in the most aggressive manner possible.”
However, Jason denied having prior knowledge that the papers would be served in such a manner, stating he intended the papers to be served at an airport she would be traveling from so that she wouldn’t receive the documents “at the home of Olivia’s current partner because Otis and Daisy might be present.”
So regardless of what the truth is, funnily enough, it was still done with the consideration of their children.
That would be evident in the following months where they both talked about keeping their kids their top priority throughout this entire process.
Recently, they were spotted sharing a hug. So maybe they’ve let go of their actions towards one another and are truly focusing on what’s best for their kids. A source close to ET shared an update in January following Olivia’s split with most recent boyfriend, Harry Styles.
“Olivia has been focusing all her energy on her kids and family since her split with Harry,” the source said, “and now that they’re broken up, it’s been easier for Jason and Olivia to get along. Jason has been trying to be supportive of Olivia and a good co-parent during this transition. Things between Jason and Olivia are cordial and going well.”
Sources:
https://people.com/movies/jason-sudeikis-olivia-wilde-relationship-timeline/
