Olivia Wilde revealed the moment she knew her relationship with Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis was over.
On her 36th birthday, March 10, 2020, just days before the worldwide COVID lockdown, Sudeikis admitted during a drive home that he had no idea what to get Wilde, his partner of nearly 10 years, so he got her nothing.
“And he said, ‘What would I get you, Olivia? I don’t know you.’ And he wasn’t wrong. We didn’t know each other anymore,” Wilde said, recalling his harsh words on a new episode of the podcast Call Her Daddy.
Wilde, now 42, admitted that the end was a long time coming, explaining they had “been having a rough time of it for a while.” But it was at that moment she knew it wasn’t fixable with the former Saturday Night Live cast member, 50.
“And that was the point when we realized it was over and it was f---ing tough, and it brought us to the place of like, ‘OK, this is done. We’re going to end this.’ And then literally two days later was lockdown,” Wilde said.
Wilde, who appeared on the podcast to promote her new film The Invite, said she made the movie to explore the tension couples experience in their marriage before deciding to end it for good.
“This is the thing that made me want to make this movie,{ she acknowledged, “because you can get to a place in a relationship where you stop engaging in the knowing of each other, in the curiosity about each other, and you find yourself in a place where you’re like, “I don’t even know you.’”
“It’s very difficult and the idea that relationships can come to a place where you become strangers,” Wilde said pointedly.
Wilde emphasized that it’s not an overnight process and that many couples go through a long period of “poking and scraping” until someone stops and decides to have a “real conversation.”
The pair publicly announced the end of their engagement in November 2020 after nine years and two children together, Otis, 12, and Daisy, 9.
Their breakup became a public spectacle in April 2022 when Wilde was served legal papers from Jason while she was on stage in Las Vegas, speaking about her sophomore directorial project, Don’t Worry Darling.
Their split was further complicated after she made her public debut with pop star Harry Styles, who was starring in her film, in early 2021, when Styles was 28, and Wilde was 38.
Wilde has claimed vigorously that there was no overlap between Sudeikis and Styles.
“People were f---ing pissed,” Wilde recalled about her 10-year age-gap relationship with Styles, 32.
“What do you think was so triggering to people seeing you dating a man, where they deemed you to be in a position of power and the older woman?” Cooper asked Wilde.
“I know it’s something that’s existed in our society. I understand it had very little to do with me,” Wilde said, adding that it’s a phenomenon women have had to endure for a long time.
Wilde also believes the parasocial relationship many fans had with the former boyband heartthrob played a part in the increased scrutiny their relationship received.
“It also had a lot to do with the personal relationship people had with him, which is a burden that is very weighty and not something I envy,” Wilde pointed out.
But she has only good things to say about her ex, who is now engaged to actress Zoë Kravitz.
“It’s wild, because we had the loveliest relationship, so so sweet and so beautiful and really actually domestic and kind and lovely,” she said. “I think that people were mad. It’s almost like the happiness made them mad.”
Wilde has since moved on to someone less in the public eye, going official with British art dealer Caspar Jopling at the beginning of 2026.
