Olivia Wilde has described as “vicious” being served legal papers on behalf of her former partner Jason Sudeikis while onstage at an industry event in Las Vegas.
The actress and director, 38, was served with the documents in a brown envelope while promoting her upcoming thriller Don’t Worry Darling at CinemaCon in April.
Wilde and Sudeikis were together from 2011 until late 2020 and are parents of eight-year-old son Otis and daughter Daisy, five.
Speaking to Variety for a cover story, Wilde referred to the incident without naming Sudeikis.
She said: “It was my workplace. In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack. It was really upsetting. It shouldn’t have been able to happen. 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.”
Footage showed the filmmaker appearing surprised after opening the envelope.
Wilde, who is now dating former One Direction star Harry Styles, added: “I hated that this nastiness distracted from the work of so many different people and the studio that I was up there representing
“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.”
Following the incident at CinemaCon, representatives for Sudeikis confirmed the documents were related to the jurisdiction of the couple’s children, but said the actor had no prior knowledge of how they would be delivered.
His representatives have been contacted for further comment.
In December, Wilde confirmed she was dating Styles, 28, and said she was “happier” than she had ever been.
They have been in a relationship since she cast him in forthcoming psychological thriller, Don’t Worry Darling, opposite fellow British star Florence Pugh.
Wilde also used the interview to rubbish claims Styles was being paid more than Pugh as his female counterpart, saying: “There is absolutely no validity to those claims.”