Jason Sudeikis has an admission about his relationship with Olivia Wilde: “I could have communicated better.”
The Ted Lasso star, 51, discussed the breakup during the Oct. 18 episode of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso. The conversation followed the fourth-season finale of his Apple TV series.
Sudeikis and Wilde began dating in 2011, announced their engagement in 2013 and separated in 2020. They never married.
He also praised Wilde’s work as an actress and filmmaker, saying she has always been talented and loves what she does. “I’m thrilled for her,” he said.
He Compared Keeping Quiet to Hiding Bad Grades
Sudeikis compared leaving his feelings unspoken to a child hiding bad grades from their parents, according to Us Weekly. Avoiding the conversation might postpone an uncomfortable exchange, he explained, but the problem would still exist.
He included bosses at Saturday Night Live and television line producers among the people he could not reasonably expect to read his mind. His question was how to convey those feelings sooner, whether the conversation involved a romantic partner or someone he worked with.
In a July 2021 interview with GQ, he had expected his understanding to deepen over the next one, two and five years. He hoped the separation would eventually occupy far less space in his life, shrinking from something that could fill a book into a much smaller part of his story.
He Says the Public Misunderstood Their Split
Asked what the media got wrong, Sudeikis answered, “a million little things,” according to Entertainment Weekly. He did not identify specific inaccuracies.
He distinguished interpersonal disputes from serious wrongdoing, rejecting simple judgments of right and wrong. “It’s always more complicated, more human than that,” he said.
The experience has made him more sympathetic toward others facing public scrutiny. He told Fragoso that he tries not to dwell on other people’s mistakes, although doing so takes effort.
He did not discuss the 2022 CinemaCon incident, when Wilde was served documents concerning their children during her presentation of Don’t Worry Darling. At the time, a source close to the situation told EW in its original report that Sudeikis had not known where or when the papers would be delivered and would not have approved of the onstage service.
Wilde Recalled a Birthday Conversation Before Lockdown
Wilde described her own realization that the relationship was ending during a June 17 interview with Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy. She recalled driving home from her birthday party on March 10, 2020, and asking Sudeikis whether he had bought her a present. “What would I get you, Olivia? I don’t know you,” she recalled him answering, in the exchange highlighted by SiriusXM. Wilde said the comment hurt, but she also believed he was right. They had stopped knowing each other after a difficult stretch together.
During the pandemic, Wilde recalled, they continued living in the same house while navigating how to raise their children separately. She said they also wondered whether they could repair the relationship.
She connected that experience to The Invite, the relationship comedy she directed and starred in opposite Seth Rogen, with Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton playing another couple. Wilde said she understood how people could stop being curious about each other long before they decided to separate.
After reading Rashida Jones and Will McCormack’s script, Wilde asked relationship therapist Esther Perel to consult on the film. She said Perel helped the filmmakers approach arguments from each character’s perspective, rather than treating one partner as the obvious villain.
Wilde Says Sharing Custody Gives Their Children More Focused Time
The former couple share son Otis, 12, and daughter Daisy, 10. In the same June interview, Wilde said separate parenting time allows her to concentrate on the children when they are with her, then devote herself to work while they are with Sudeikis. She described him as a capable, attentive parent, according to Us Weekly.
Wilde also said they function better as separated parents than they did together. She felt the children were receiving more from each of them than had been possible during the final years of their relationship.
On July 27, Sudeikis brought Otis and Daisy to the season-four premiere of Ted Lasso at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Photographs published by PEOPLE showed him standing between them on the carpet and holding his hands above their heads to shield their eyes from the sun.