Jason Sudeikis & Olivia Wilde’s custodial fight has gotten extremely messy

In late April, Olivia Wilde attended Cinema Con in Las Vegas, which is an industry event where directors and actors hype their films to theater-owners and studios. Wilde was there to give a presentation for Don’t Worry Darling, which she directed. While she was on stage, a woman stood up from the audience and handed her an envelope. Olivia accepted the envelope, not realizing what it was. As it turned out, the woman was a process server and Olivia was served with legal papers related to custody and residency of her two children. Jason Sudeikis’s lawyer had hired the process server, although no one was quite sure if Jason made the call to have Olivia served on stage. We also weren’t sure if Olivia knew that Jason was trying to serve her with a legal filing. Now, months later, the Daily Mail ran an exclusive look at the fallout after Olivia was served. Jason and Olivia’s split has gotten very spicy.

Olivia Wilde has accused ex Jason Sudeikis of intentionally trying to ’embarrass’ and ‘threaten’ her when she was awkwardly served with custody papers on stage at a live event in April. The actors had continued to co-parent and share custody of their kids since their 2020 split, alternating one-week periods of ‘parental access’, while they both split their time between New York, Los Angeles, and London. But those arrangements became no longer viable in April this year, when the pair had a disagreement about where they would be raising their children permanently, prompting Sudeikis to file a custody petition.

In her motion to dismiss the action, Wilde said the two had initially agreed to send their kids back to school in Los Angeles for the upcoming school year since Sudeikis was due to wrap up the final season of Apple TV series Ted Lasso which had required him to be in London.

‘Recently, however, Jason decided that he wanted to go to New York for the next year while he is not working, and wanted the children to be with him there during this time off,’ the actress said in the filing. ‘When I did not agree, since the children have not lived in New York for several years, Jason filed these papers.’ Wilde, who began dating Styles in January 2021, argued that the children have spent most of the last four years in LA or in London, even attending schools in the two cities.

Wilde referenced the embarrassing [Cinema Con process server] incident for the first time in her court motion, slamming her ex for his ‘outrageous legal tactics’ and delivering the documents ‘mid-speech.’ ‘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,’ she said in the documents. ‘The fact that Jason would embarrass me professionally and put our personal conflict on public display in this manner is extremely contrary to our children’s best interests. Since Jason has made it clear that we will not be able to work this out for our children’s sake outside of the court system, I filed a petition for custody in Los Angeles.’

[From The Daily Mail]

“Jason’s actions were clearly intended to threaten me and catch me off guard”…? Catch her off guard, yes. Embarrass her, yes, indeed. But threaten her? I don’t know. As for the custodial and residency issue, Sudeikis has traveled a lot in recent years, spending months at a time in the UK, filming Ted Lasso. After being New York-based with Jason for years, Olivia moved back to LA in 2020 and she seems happy there, with space for the kids to run around and a private yard and a pool. I honestly don’t completely blame her for saying “I’m going to live in LA, you can visit.” As for Jason’s declaration, well, it’s full of interesting stuff too:

In his declaration to the court, Sudeikis said that while he, Wilde, and their two kids had been living in London since December 2021, he intended to return to his ‘permanent home’ in Brooklyn when filming for Ted Lasso concluded in July. He said he hoped that his ex and their children would also return to New York so they could continue their current custody arrangement. Sudeikis said he now believes those plans are ‘unlikely to occur’ after Wilde ‘insisted upon’ living with their kids in LA and asked him to join them during a discussion over custody in April. She also disclosed her future plans to move to London, where she has been living with former One Direction star Harry Styles, 28, at the end of next year.

‘For better or worse, I am a New Yorker,’ Sudeikis said, adding that it was in the kids’ best interests to grow up in Brooklyn. He also claimed he had been ‘reluctant’ to serve Wilde because he continues ‘to care deeply for her’, but said he was spooked by two particular statements during their conversation. ‘First, Olivia said that if I did not reside full-time in Los Angeles, she would allow me to spend time with Otis and Daisy on weekends and during vacation periods – thus depriving me of my right to parent the children during important periods of their lives…,’ Sudeikis said. He continued: ‘Second, Olivia said that she intended to relocate with the children to London following the close of school in 2023.’

Sudeikis, ‘fearful’ that she would ‘take Otis and Daisy’ from him, said he then asked his attorney in that moment to serve the summons and petition to Wilde knowing shew was scheduled to travel to LA the next morning. The actor claimed he had always hoped she would be served in a ‘benign manner’ and requested service take place at Heathrow Airport, rather than boyfriend Harry Styles’s home, where she is currently living.

‘I did not want service to take place at the home of Olivia’s current partner because Otis and Daisy might be present. I did not want service to take place at the children’s school because parents might be present,’ Sudeikis said.

The actor goes on to say that the process server was ultimately unable to serve Wilde at the intended location that day due to a series of logistical mishaps. He said he would only learn Wilde would be ultimately served in public days later when the incident made headlines. Sudeikis claimed he was ‘deeply upset’ at the turn of events and later found out that Wilde’s whereabouts were tracked down thanks to a tweet speculating her appearance at CinemaCon.

An attempt was made to serve Wilde at her hotel in Las Vegas where the event was held, but after that failed, the server ‘noticed Olivia at the Warner Brothers Panel and proceeded to serve the Summons and Petition upon Olivia.’

Sudeikis said he continues to ‘feel great distress at the manner in which service was made. I understand that the process server had only done her job; however, I deeply regret what happened. Olivia’s talk was an important event for Olivia, both professionally and personally, and I am very, very sorry that the incident marred her special moment,’ he added.

[From The Daily Mail]

Yeah, I buy that “serving Olivia at Cinema Con” wasn’t Jason’s call and he didn’t like the way it went down. I just don’t think a client would dictate to their lawyer or to a process server “see if you can serve her the paperwork while she’s on stage at a big industry event.” That’s insane. And Olivia’s making plans to move to London full-time with Harry Styles? And take the kids there next year? Well…I understand why Jason isn’t happy. This is a really messy custodial dispute.

Oh, and this narrow part of the custody issue is over – these declarations were about which family court had the jurisdiction. Sudeikis filed in New York, and the New York court said no, the kids are not New Yorkers, this should go to an LA County family court.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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146 Responses to “Jason Sudeikis & Olivia Wilde’s custodial fight has gotten extremely messy”

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  1. Christine says:

    This is awful. These 2 should do their best not to have this play out publicly. She is not looking great in my view but I am sure there are 2 sides to every story. Poor kids.
    Editing to add that custody situations can get so emotional and so intense. It seems like these 2 are working from a highly emotional place.

    • Seraphina says:

      I agree. Two side to every story and they both need to turn down the volume. The kids are surely feeling it and when playing out all over social media, it just amplifies the hurt and all else that goes along with divorce and custody fights.

    • Andria@aol.com says:

      Did you read her statement? She says she was forced to do it publicly

      • SarahLee says:

        Yes. That’s what she says. Jason says that’s not true – that they tried to serve her elsewhere and that he was mortified it played out like that.

      • Tiffany:) says:

        If he says she should not be served where she lives, and she should not be served at the school..,that really only leaves her work.

        I think the chatter about her “avoiding service” that so many people assumed needs to go away. He makes it clear she didn’t avoid service, he wanted it served ASAP.

      • Silver Charm says:

        @Tiffany is spot on. There’s a big push online to say she was dodging but there really isn’t anything to back it up. In Jason’s filings he chalk it up to “logistical mishaps” but ppl keep trying to twist it into something nefarious on Olivia’s part.

      • Angie says:

        Yes. I think he wanted it done in public so it would be news worthy. This gets his concern about her taking the kids away from him out there for everyone to know about and then sympathize with him.

    • Snoozer says:

      Really? She’s not looking great? We always reserve harsher judgments for women, don’t we? He looks equally bad, if not worse due to the way she was served.

      I see everyone saying he couldn’t have known but they are forgetting something important: that event was industry only and invite only. You can’t get in without industry credentials and a lanyard. How did a server get in on short notice if this wasn’t planned?

      The way he describes it, they just happened to notice that she was there and showed up, wandered up to her and served her.

      No, it is a tightly controlled event, you need to be on a list. It was confirmed they had a lanyard. They were sitting right up the front too.

      That is all extremely fishy and smacks of someone in the industry * cough cough * organising entry and access for them.

      • Caitriona says:

        Yeah this is where I am too. I don’t see how the server could have gotten close enough to the stage to serve her without some sort of authorisation or pass. Unless security is REALLY lax. Had to have been help from somewhere

      • Christine says:

        Same.

    • sunnyish says:

      It is worth noting that both children were born in NYC.

      • Snoozer says:

        Place of birth doesn’t mean much. I was born an ex-pat yet no one would have been able to successfully argue that custody of me as a child should be where I was born instead of where I spent my whole childhood past the age of 2. Those kids have spent most of the last few years in LA and also London.

    • CourtneyB says:

      The statements were in their filings so they didn’t make them public. Media and gossip sites covered it. They didn’t issue press statements or run to favored outlets.

  2. Ameerah says:

    Yeah I never bought that he had her served at the panel on purpose. That was the process server’s doing.

    This is such a messy situation. I completely get Olivia wanting to have the kids in LA since that’s where they are enrolled in school. But I also get Jason being pissed about the kids being moved to an entirely different country. Which I frankly don’t get. She and Styles have been together for five seconds. Why are you uprooting your children’s entire lives for your boyfriend?

    • Ceej says:

      If she did tell him he would only get to see them for holidays and vacations unless he lived in LA permanently, they need a court to set a formal custody agreement. No one parent can dictate a change of that magnitude from a 1 week/1week equal split of custody. They’ll probably both end up not thrilled with the outcome, but ideally the outcome will be to the benefit of the kids and legally they’ll need to make it work.

    • Silver Charm says:

      They’ve been together for nearly two years.

      • Ameerah says:

        2 years is NOT a long time. Especially with kids involved. And ESPECIALLY when you’re trying to move them to an entirely different country for no other reason than your boyfriend lives there. The best compromise would be LA/NY. Not ideal but it would be fair for the kids.

      • Silver Charm says:

        It’s longer than five seconds. And seems long enough that they’re cohabitating and planning for the long term for their family.

      • Ambel says:

        If she insists Jason live in LA if he wants to see his kids, why doesn’t she insist that Harry live in LA if he wants to see her? Or is her priority Harry rather than her kids?

      • Both Sides Nowt says:

        @ Ambel, that’s an excellent point of view. She wants to live in LA, where the kids have spent most of their lives and intends on moving to London permanently in 2023? That smells of OW placing her needs ABOVE the children. This spells out that OW wants to live where HS lives but won’t put her children first.

      • Ameerah says:

        @Ambel Thank you. It’s exactly my point. It feels like she is putting her boyfriend before her kids.

      • Emma33 says:

        But Harry doesn’t have kids and has a job he can probably do as well from LA as from London. I don’t see why she’s moving to London, unless she has work lined up there.

        The good part of this is that they obviously both seem to be loving parents who really want to have as much time with their children as possible. I really hope they are able to work this out.

    • Josephine says:

      defiitely not the decision of the process server. his team had to have signed off on it. the public is so, so eager to bash women and he probably thought he could get away with it because the public would naturally think she “deserved” it. i do buy that he regrets the decision, but I just don’t buy that he didn’t know ahead of time. it took planning and was so performative.

    • Tiffany:) says:

      It’s not uprooting their lives if they have lived there for years during the filming of Ted Lasso. They may have schools/friends there.

    • Kebbie says:

      Has she actually said she wants to move to London? He seems to be claiming that to justify how she was served. I’m not sure how it’s relevant or if it’s even true. She can’t just move them to another country. From what I’ve seen, she requested Los Angeles be their primary residence and has never said anything about London.

      • Huckle says:

        If she takes them to London to live, how is he supposed to have her served and get before a judge and have a custody agreement in place then? I mean, yes serve her asap wherever she is but perhaps he didn’t envision that it would happen on a stage in front of everyone and the process server has a job to do so too damn bad. People get served at work all the time.

    • Tan says:

      Weren’t the kids originally in London cause Jason was filming Ted Lasso?

  3. Noki says:

    After reading this i think Jason doesnt mean any ill will,initially i thought he has a case of BradPittitus and was going to make Olivias life hell for daring to leave him.

  4. Jessica says:

    Messy, Indeed. If the process server was checking her whereabouts on Twitter, she has been dodging getting served for a while. Do you remember when she divorced her previous husband..he was some type of European royalty or something and she was trashing him in the press for years after and no one even knew who he was. That made me start giving her the side eye because it was so unnecessary. This is next level with kids involved..neither of them are saints and I am team Daisy/Otis all the way. There are so many kids that don’t have two parents that want to be part of their lives so if there are two parents that obviously do…try to work it out..privately…

    • Lemon says:

      Also team Daisy/Otis 100%. Their lives and schools should be home base and Olivia can go twiddle around London with Harry and Jason can plonk himself in NY because he’s a NYer when the other one has the kids. Why drag them all over to hell and back?

      • lucy2 says:

        I agree. These kids deserve a home base with their school and friends and activities, and the parents are just going to have to work it out.

    • Silver Charm says:

      There really isn’t any solid indication she’s been dodging. Jason’s filing even said he had opportunities to serve her at her home or school drop off. The server unnecessarily escalated the situation.

    • It’sjustblanche says:

      Agreed, she was especially nasty about her ex and there was no reason for it. Even demeaning him for his performance in bed. She’s not that nice.

    • Both Sides Nowt says:

      @ Jessica, in addition to her unnecessary comments regarding her ex-husband to her claim that she felt “threatened” by being served in the manner that she was, I am side eyeing all of her declarations of being the true victim in this scenario.

      The fact is that the server had a responsibility to serve OW as soon as possibly available. It’s not the duty of the one of the petitioner to dictate how she was served, it happened to play out in a public forum.

      I understand why JS was terrified of NOT serving OW based on his comment regarding OW planning to move to London, whether his response was or was not factual. It could be a case of JS wanting to finalize the custody agreement as soon as he possibly could. Given that they seem to have a verbal agreement at this time, it was important for JS to establish court ordered visitations.

      • Fortuona says:

        So why did he wait from October 21 till April 20 something to serve her then if he was in such a rush ?

        so 6 months of the kids being swapped , then dropped it on her her when she was launching her movie

        And where has she said she was moving to London

  5. Cheesus says:

    While a client might not be able to dictate everything a process server does or where, it seems way too far fetched to think he didn’t enjoy Olivia being served onstage or that the server didn’t confirm this with him beforehand. It was way too public, and way too humiliating.

    I get that there are a lot of Jason Sudeikis fangirls because they think he’s just like Ted Lasso irl, but let’s get a grip.

    • BB says:

      Thank you. That was a d*ck move. But there are no winners here

    • snappyfish says:

      My question has always been why didn’t her lawyer accept service? That is usually the standard. It sounds like she as dodging being served which is why the process server was employed. I think the whole LA only, when the family has only lived in Brooklyn, so like it or not the kids are New Yorkers, but the whole moving to London. Is she really planning to drag her kids around behind Harry? I feel bad for the whole lot involved.

      • Dutch says:

        They are fighting over jurisdiction as much as they are fighting over custody. Accepting the papers establishes jurisdiction in a pace where Jason believes he has a better chance at a favorable outcome.

      • Tiffany:) says:

        There’s no proof she dodged service, and Jason’s statements actually dispute the idea. They only tried to serve her at the airport and LV hotel, but failed because of logistical mishaps. It sounds like it was a rush to serve her, and they were not going to places where she could dodge, like where she lived.

    • SarahLee says:

      I think he could have been both amused and horrified at the way it went down. Seriously, have you never laughed at something and then thought “Oh no – that’s inappropriate. Shouldn’t laugh at that.”?

      • Christine says:

        Yes, when someone (usually me) trips on a completely flat surface.

        Not this. Whatever you think of either of them, this is shitty. This was a big moment in her professional life, I remember what a big fucking deal it was when Kathryn Bigelow won an Oscar as the first.female.director, and that was 2010, not 1950.

        I legitimately don’t have a dog in this fight, I haven’t watched Ted Lasso, and I am ambivalent/angry about Olivia Wilde since House, but perception is reality, right?

        I would love to hear from this female process server, who had the eye of the tiger and really got in the game.

        P.S. The excuse about not wanting it delivered to her “current partner’s house” rings absolutely false, to me.

        So what if the kids are there, Olivia handled it like a champ when she was ambushed ON STAGE.

        Yeah, Daddy of the year, it’s much better to publicly shame your ex in a way that will be searchable on the internet for the rest of their lives.

        /speaking from the perspective of a single mother who has never had a co-parent, and thank Christ for that.

    • MissMarirose says:

      Totally agree. If he didn’t want to embarrass her, he could have asked her lawyer to accept service. Also, as someone else mentioned above, he didn’t want to serve her at school or her home with the kids, so that only left her (very public) job. He knew what he was doing. And people have to stop confusing JS with Ted Lasso.

    • SuzieQ says:

      Clients and even lawyers can’t control how a process server is going to do his/her job. They can make suggestions, but the process server generally does what’s going to get the service accomplished.

  6. girl_ninja says:

    I don’t blame Jason for not wanting their babies to be moved to London. Why would she assume that she could just take them to another country and he be alright with it? She knows that his series is in it’s last season and that he would likely want to return to the states. I do understand her wanting to live in L.A. for children as well and he lived there for years before their relationship ended. This is all so unfortunate. I hope it works out well for the children’s sake.

    • Josephine says:

      jason *claimed* that Olivia made that statement, it was his excuse for how he acted. since it didn’t come from her, i wouldn’t trust that it’s the actual story. until it’s part of her legal request, it’s just his word, which everyone now seems to be taking as true despite it not being part of her legal custody request (which continues to be LA is the home base)

      • Brita says:

        Do you think Jason would lie in an official court document, though? I don’t.

      • Kate says:

        Yeah the timeline doesn’t make sense here to me. So they had a discussion in April about where the kids would live, Jason proposes everyone move to NY – a place where none of them have lived in years, Olivia says what? no, why? and Jason instructs his attorney to serve papers on Olivia the next day? These papers must already have been drafted in the event Olivia didn’t willingly agree to move herself and their kids to a place none of them have lived in years and with which she has no ties. I call bullsh*t on his claim to have done the inappropriate process service in the wake of a sudden fear.

        Also it doesn’t sound like Olivia is asking the court for permission to move the kids to London so I’m not sure why that’s relevant to mention at all in his papers. She wants them to live in LA *where they already live and go to school* and once a legal custody order is granted neither of them is going to be able to move the kids to another country without the court’s permission.

      • Kebbie says:

        Everything Kate said. I’d also add that he likely included the London claim because he *knew* it would become a headline and she’d be criticized for it.

      • Sunday says:

        Exactly! Why would Olivia go through an entire court proceeding where, best case scenario (for her) the court would decide in her favor that the kids would live in LA, only to turn around and move to London, prompting another, separate custody battle? It makes no sense. If she wanted the kids to live in London, she would have included that in her court documents, otherwise it would create a bigger judicial mess.

        Bottom line, Jason saying that Olivia said that she’s planning on moving to London is just hearsay. I’m no Olivia superfan or anything but it seems pretty clear that she’s fighting for custody in LA.

      • LilacMaven says:

        “ since it didn’t come from her, i wouldn’t trust that it’s the actual story”

        I sincerely doubt he committed perjury. For that reason, I’m inclined to believe his version of events.

      • Fortuona says:

        The thing is he filed this in Oct 21 but waited till that week to serve her

        so he had 15 odd chances to serve her at the hand over of the kids

    • Cbwinslo says:

      Jason didn’t have a problem with the kids being in London when it served his interests 🤷‍♀️

  7. Beenie says:

    Man…. splits are hard when kids are involved. Especially if the ex’s want to live in different places.

    I remember when my friend got divorced, she was working in DC and her husband was working in Virginia. While they were together they split the difference and lived in Virginia, about a 1 hour commute for her and a 30 minute commute for him.

    Once they separated it would have been so much easier for her if she could have relocated to DC. Her work was in a nice area with a decent school. Her commute would have been minutes and she would have had so much more time with the kids. But she didn’t dare move out of state for fear that he would start a custody battle. And this is like a 1 hour difference driving… not an East Coast-West Coast situation. But she was warned by her lawyer it could still get messy if her jurisdiction changed.

  8. ThatsNotOkay says:

    Clients can tell lawyers who tell process servers where the intended recipient will be, then it’s up to the PS to find the recipient. IF Olivia was going back and forth and only in the country briefly and Jason didn’t want her served in LA unless it was at the airport or at home, which failed, makes sense the PS learned about ComicCon and tried to serve her at the hotel. Then went to the actual event. Then went up to the stage.

    It’s stupid to suggest just because people don’t think Jason was involved or that he deliberately tried to humiliate Olivia that people are somehow fangirls. Honestly, who really cares that much about Ted Lasso? Mostly guys.

    • FHMom says:

      I will stand up for Ted Lasso. It’s a brilliant show. If men are mostly watching , then it’s a good thing because they might learn to deal better with their issues.

      • lucy2 says:

        I agree – I have been consistently surprised by how lovely the show is, and I too hope men are watching it.

    • ncboudicca says:

      @FHMom: totally agree. It’s a beautiful show and with well-rounded characters across the board. Probably one of the best examples of ANTI-toxic masculinity on tv, on any network.

      @ThatsNotOkay: if you haven’t watched Ted Lasso yet, you’re really missing out. It’s not a show just for guys, and my personal opinion is that the female characters are more front-and-center and driving the storyline than the male characters. I have never seen a better twist on “rom com” than S2, Ep 5. Absolutely a delight!

      With all that said, I don’t know Jason Sudeikis but thought he was a bit of a dick when a friend approached him about 10 yrs ago, so in no way do I confuse him with his characters.

  9. detritus says:

    “I’m a New Yorker”

    Well my dude, that’s nice but it’s about the children. Not you.

    The children have been in school and lived in London and LA. Lasso was filmed in London.

    • Abby says:

      That part sounded funny to me too, especially since he’s famously from Kansas City. 🤷🏻‍♀️

      • Angie says:

        I’m wondering if he said that because he is concerned about her taking the kids to London and reducing his custody time. If he is a New Yorker a judge might say 50/50 only if Olivia lives in LA

    • Kirsten says:

      When they were together, they lived in New York with their children. Olivia moved to LA for work and Jason has been in London for work; the kids didn’t live in either place until just a couple of years ago.

      • Cava 24 says:

        The kids have been living in LA the bulk of the last four years which is a lot, given their ages. The court looks at where they have been living recently to determine jurisdiction. This is not about the history of Jason and Olivia’s relationship and living arrangements since they got together, it’s about where the kids have been living.

    • Sudie says:

      There are many photos of the children with one or other of their parents in Brooklyn. They were born while living there, had friends there. Last summer they were with their dad in Brooklyn. The home they were initially raised in is still their home base, I don’t care where Olivia moved them for work. My daughter lives in their area of Brooklyn and saw Olivia & Jason several times walking with their kids. Daughter moved to Brooklyn April 2019 and saw Olivia several times in 2020. Don’t Worry Darling didn’t start filming in LA until October 2020 (per IMDb. Therefore, the idea that the children have been living in LA for 3 years doesn’t seem to be correct.

      • detritus says:

        I dunno what to tell you my dude, the NY courts have already ruled that the children did not spend substantive time in Brooklyn.

        If all the photos are from when they were infants and toddlers that might explain things?

      • Cava 24 says:

        They were in LA from March of 2020-the end of 2020 for work and because of Covid. In 2021 they were in London until early June, then Brooklyn for two months, then LA from Aug until the end of the year. They were in Brooklyn for part of 2019 but that was partially spent in a different home because their home was being treated for mold. Jason said they weren’t in the house in Brooklyn from fall 2019 until June 2021 in his GQ interview. Olivia is not the only one who “moved them for work”, the writing for Ted Lasso happens in LA and it is shot in London. His writing season 2 was concurrent with DWD filming.

  10. Concern+Fae says:

    Can’t the papers just be delivered to her lawyer’s office?

    My ex dragged out the divorce so long he died, so now I’m a widow.

    • TheOriginalMia says:

      Some states require paperwork to be directly served to the other part.

    • Dutch says:

      They can but the lawyer can refuse the papers (a recent example is the NFL owner who has spent the bulk of the year aboard his mega yacht in international waters dodging a Congressional subpoena with his lawyers refusing service). It makes sense her lawyers would do that because because right now this battle is all about jurisdiction. Accepting Jason’s papers sets the jurisdiction for the legal proceedings on his terms, which he must believe that NY would give him a better chance at a favorable outcome than going in front of a judge in LA.

  11. AppleCart says:

    They don’t have traditional careers so working all over the world is going to be a challenge. But her wanting to move to London for peen. May not be in the best interest of the children alienating them from their Dad. Harry could live anywhere why can’t he move to LA or NYC. And they aren’t married. If the next boyfirend lives in Spain. Will she drag the kids to live in Spain full time?

  12. Charlotte says:

    Exactly! It’s not like Harry has kids so why are he and Olivia choosing to live in the MOST awkward option of the 3 (London, NYC, LA). I get that he is British but he could live in the USA without leaving kids behind. I just seems like a weird power play and it makes O & H look like aresholes.

    • Malificent says:

      Harry was based out of LA during the pandemic. It’s not like he hasn’t chosen to live outside of London before he was with Olivia.

    • AC says:

      Isn’t Olivia English? Famously fancy English family??? I am not sure why we are all assuming it’s about Harry. Like, she is also from England and why wouldn’t she want to live closer to her family/old friends?

      • detritus says:

        Yup. Her family is UK based, and the first court has ruled no on NY already.

      • Red says:

        She has family in Ireland, not the UK, she has dual citizenship. But she was born and raised in DC.

      • LilacMaven says:

        She has an American mother and British father. She was raised the US. She was never based in the UK growing up. Shall of her immediate family and old friends are based in the US, too.

        If she moves to the UK, it’s for Harry. Not her immediate family or old friends.

  13. Silver Charm says:

    While I buy that he hasn’t intended for her to be served at CinemaCon, his filing does show he had opportunities to serve her privately and didn’t. There’s been rumors about him being vindictive and having a “darkness to him” (as Tom and Lorenzo mentioned on their pod) but never any specifics.

    I feel bad for Olivia tbh. The Harry stans have been going after her for 18 months but the last 4-5 or so have been especially heinous and sexist.

  14. TheOriginalMia says:

    She can forget London. The judge isn’t going to allow her to move to London with the kids, when the only reason they were in London was Jason’s work. Those kids will be flying back and forth between LA & NYC. Not ideal by a long shot but better than another country.

    As for the process server, she did her job. Jason isn’t responsible for someone else performing their job.

    • Brita says:

      The kids could end up in London eventually, tbh. Olivia can apply for an international relocation, and a family court judge will take all factors into consideration. The best interests of the kids will be first, obviously, but Olivia can make a case for herself especially if she marries Styles. A parent relocating for a job or a remarriage happens all the time.

      • Wendy says:

        It isn’t 1952 anymore — fathers actually have just as many rights to parent their children as mother’s do. She would need to prove that it was in the best interests of the children to not only be uprooted from LA but also prove it is in their best interests to be without their father on a regular basis.

      • detritus says:

        Wendy, way to get it backward.

        Men have always had more rights than women, including in custodial arrangements.

        The vast vast majority don’t care to fight for their children in court.

  15. Mia4s says:

    Sigh…it’s clear LA is the compromise (if she thinks any judge is going to agree to let her move two American citizen children to another country because she thinks it’s nice and her boyfriend lives there she is a complete idiot).

  16. It’sjustblanche says:

    I remember how much they talked about their marathon sex sessions and how she kept throwing shade to her ex in that respect back when they first started dating. They both seemed kind of like jerks at the time and I’m not surprised things ended this way.

    • Cava 24 says:

      I am not sure she was trying to move to London permanently. She has at least one directing project that could be filmed in London, that might be why she wants to be there for some period. Of course he’s not going to frame it that way.

      If he’s living in Brooklyn while the kids live in LA it is impossible, as a practical matter, for him to have 50% custody- the kids aren’t going to be flying back and forth that much. He could though.

  17. Jessica says:

    The papers were served at event in which you needed credentials and/or a ticket to get into. So spare me, with the, he didn’t know it would happen like that.
    Jason also could have had his lawyer serve her lawyer with the papers.
    In the documents he said he didn’t want to serve her at Harry’s home, because the kids might be there. Well, why not serve her with the papers on the week she didn’t have the kids.
    There were multiple other ways he could have served the papers to her. Also, during that time, there were pictures of Olivia taken by fans and a few pap pictures. It was not hard to find her. She was either at Coachella with Harry or in L.A.
    It’s always hard, no matter how amicable, it may be at first, when it comes to where children will be raised. My bff had a rough time and the location is only a state away. Hopefully, Olivia and Jason can work this out, before a judge has to make the final decision, about what is best for the kids. But, it will stick in my craw how this blew up, because there were other options besides from Olivia getting publicly served.

    • Case says:

      Precisely this — I don’t buy for a second he didn’t know she’d be served in this manner. The person serving her needed to pay to get in — they could’ve easily waited for her to leave the event, or serve her at home during the school day. He absolutely gave the okay for this to happen and knew it would humiliate her.

      • Angie says:

        I don’t know…I can picture a naive pass checker/ticket taker thinking a legal matter gives people a right to come in, especially if they have some kind of official looking badge or credential. I call lax security and a veteran processor who gets paid on commission 😄

  18. Lou says:

    Parents putting themselves first over their kids. They seem like flaky, emotionally immature people to be raising children.

  19. Colby says:

    She wants to move the kids to London for her boyfriend? No ma’am – that’s gross to me. She has kids with Jason, for better or worse. She needs to make an effort to keep them in his life.

    She and Harry can move to NYC – it’s arguably the US’s answer to London and only a few hour flight for Harry to go home, and Jason is there.

    It sucks but once you have kids with someone you don’t get to do whatever you want anymore.

  20. OriginalMich says:

    Olivia does not have full custody of those children but seems to think she has the legal right to be the sole decision maker. And move them to London? I don’t think so.

    A few years ago, we talked a lot about a famous couple in a similar situation. The mother wanted to move the children back to the States from London, I think? Does anyone remember who they were? I could be misremembering but I think the father won full custody because of her actions.

    • Owlsyn (Ableism is Not Cool) says:

      You aren’t thinking of Kelly Rutherford, are you?

      • OriginalMich says:

        Thank you! That is what I’m thinking of. Seems that I forgot a lot of what the situation was…like her alleged role in getting him deported and not telling him about the existence of their second child 🙁

    • Snoozer says:

      Only if you take his version of events as the way it went down.

      She does not mention wanting to move the kids to London in her filing.

      He looks bad because of a) the way he served her and b) trying to get them to move to NYC. Him throwing out this information (which is not recorded anywhere, it is simply his word that she ever said this) helps make him look more sympathetic.

      Come on now. There is no evidence that she did this. She seems to have actually worked quite hard to co-parent with him up until now. He was the one who was working in London and she moved there too.

      Is it possible they are both a-holes? Sure! But let’s not go down the tired and well-trodden track of throwing the woman under the bus and seeing the man through rose-tinted glasses.

    • MsK says:

      Honestly, both of them could be complete a-holes. Talented and wealthy a-holes but jerks nonetheless. And they are both culpable now of dragging their kids into a public spat. As someone who went through a divorce and some nasty custody issues, it seems to me that she had been dodging service. There is NO WAY that she didn’t know this was coming. As many people have pointed out, documents are almost always served from attorney to attorney. [aside: My ex (a litigation attorney himself) told me he wanted to serve me at work to embarrass me but even his lawyer told him that’s not the way it happens.] If she had made the decision that she was the ‘primary’ parent and had the right to relocate her children, she surely would have consulted with or retained a family lawyer. Honestly, I think the issue is that the kids are now fully school aged and both parents seem to have a vested interest in providing some sort of stability for them either in LA or NYC or London (though I can’t fathom an LA/London existence for kids that age).

  21. Kay says:

    Haven’t the kids been living in LA and London because of Covid and Jason’s filming schedule? If anything, it seems like Olivia is trying to maintain consistency for them. Two years is a long time for little kids and they likely have friends and teachers, etc in London.

    • Cava 24 says:

      Jason lost the jurisdictional dispute over where the kids would be based. They will be based in LA, not NYC because that’s where they have been living for the last few years. There’s a People article from yesterday about that. He was trying to get her to agree to live in Brooklyn after agreeing to live in LA. Then they had a court proceeding to make a determination and he lost. It is more consistent that they live in LA.

      • Dutch says:

        Doesn’t Olivia’s stated desire to relocate to London within the next year throw a wrench into that logic? Hard to argue about stability in LA when you are actively planning to relocate.

      • Cava 24 says:

        We don’t know that she was planning to do that permanently. if it was for work then it could be that they agreed to live in LA for the fall while he wrote Ted Lasso and they would head to London in the spring to film and she lined up a concurrent project in London. her project doesn’t just go away because he decided not to do TL. So maybe her thought way, if he’s not going to be there, I will push it back to the summer and the kids will do both semesters at the same school.” Given the way he is framing this, I don’t think he is being entirely honest in how he is describing that situation or at least there is room to question it.

      • Kirsten says:

        He didn’t lose a dispute about where the kids would live – the judge ruled that the custody case would need to take place in California courts; the judge in that hearing can still rule that the children’s primary residence be New York.

      • Cava 24 says:

        It is exceedingly unlikely they would rule that the kids should live in NY given how “home state” is determined. That’s the reason they were each pushing for a specific jurisdiction to begin with. but you are technically correct.

  22. B says:

    If she and Harry actually get married, I wonder how that will affect custody. I agree that no judge is going to allow her to move the kids to London for a mere boyfriend, but a husband?

    Harry must love drama because I’m sure he’d have no trouble finding a woman in London to date who doesn’t have an angry baby daddy or an ugly custody dispute. Something tells me that Olivia and Jason are going to be duking it out over these kids for years to come. Buckle up, Harry…

    • Kirsten says:

      Even them being married won’t impact custody. You can’t move outside of a certain mileage range (I think typically about 160 miles) with your children, from the children’s other parent unless: (1) the other parent agrees to it and updates the Friend of the Court; or (2) A judge modifies the custody order. And a new marriage isn’t enough for a judge to agree to children living in a country where one parent doesn’t live and they aren’t citizens of.

    • Mia4s says:

      Still won’t matter is the slightest. She has no career based there and all other ties are in the US. If he wants to marry her he can move himself to the US. His opinion or preference means less than dirt to the court, married or not.The court is dealing with the best interests of American citizen children with an involved father and a mother able to live and work in the US. Her preference means nothing.

    • Gretchen says:

      IDK that I agree with the two posters above me. When my parents divorced, we all lived in the same city. Mom got primary physical custody. She remarried, and then my stepdad got a job out of state. My brother and I moved with our mom and stepdad. What could our dad say or do about it? Was a judge really supposed to (1) split up my mom’s marriage by saying that the kids had to remain in the same city as our bio dad, or (2) tell our stepdad that he couldn’t take a promotion because he had to stay in the same place? Life is messy, life happens etc. The only ideal situation for the kids would be for Olivia and Jason to reconcile but that ain’t happening. If Olivia remarries and wants to raise the kids in London with her new husband, she can appeal to the court to do that. Might be denied, might be approved. I guess time will tell.

      • Mia4s says:

        Sorry but that’s not the same at all. There’s zero reason her boyfriend *has* to be in London for his career. He tours and travels and films movies.

      • Wendy says:

        I’m willing to bet this arrangement happened many years/decades ago when men automatically lost their kids to an every other weekend and two weeks in the summer arrangement when the divorce happened.

        My money is on OW and HS quietly fizzling out after this movie promo — I think he bails.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        @Wendy – Agree with you. I do not see Olivia and Harry making it long term.

  23. Mila says:

    Team children. Then team Jason. Can’t stand her.

  24. Owlsyn (Ableism is Not Cool) says:

    I was livid with my ex for moving in with his girlfriend who is a 30-40 minute drive from my house

  25. TwinFalls says:

    The kids have lived in LA and London for the past 4 years because of Ted Lasso and her work schedule. It worked out for everyone that when Jason was in London she could be with Harry and the kids could live there and see both parents.
    Jason decided to return to NY on his time off, filed papers in NY trying to get jurisdiction there and served Olivia (on stage unintentionally).
    Jason’s NY case was denied.
    She’s now suing for custody in an LA court because that’s where the kids have been living.
    There is only Jason’s word that Olivia wanted to take the kids permanently to London in 2023.
    Maybe she said it and spooked him, maybe she didn’t but deciding to uproot his kids from LA to NY because “he’s a New Yorker” is hardly putting the best interest of your kids first.

    • Cava 24 says:

      Yup.

    • Kate says:

      Seconded. I think it’s pretty selfish of him. It’s one thing if they were still together and jointly decided to move the kids away from their home and school and friends to a new place for considerations like work or better quality of life or proximity to extended family, etc. but they’re not together and the kids are already losing the stability of their family unit. If he knows Olivia has no intention or desire to move to NY and his kids probably barely remember it – how is this in the kids’ best interest?

    • Tan says:

      Yup a lot of posters are forgetting that he was filming in London – hence the back and forth there

  26. Case says:

    I realize Olivia Wilde isn’t an angel, but I have always maintained that Jason is pulling an “aw shucks” routine to act like he’s so sweet and innocent throughout their entire separation — and is letting society’s internalized misogyny do most of the work in vilifying Olivia for him.

    • Cava 24 says:

      Like Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp, he’s become a romantic figure for femcels (he’s JV, they’re Varsity) and he knows it and he’s framing his arguments a particular way because of it.

      • Silver Charm says:

        Cava I hadn’t thought about it that way but (especially based on some of the comments here) I think you nailed it.

      • Case says:

        Exactly, Cava. It very much reminds me of how JD talks about Amber, Brad talks about Angelina, and even how Brian Austin Green talks about Megan Fox. They have to do very little work to fan the flames of “Look at how this sl*t is behaving” for women to jump all over them, and unfortunately it works.

      • Case and Cava, 100% agree with both of your takes. I’m not personally invested in either one of them and have so far only been following this case out of idle curiosity, but the way that he’s been handling all of this does not pass the smell test for me at all.

    • FHMom says:

      There is also the good will courtesy of Ted Lasso. Ted is the opposite of the toxic male, and people probably want to believe Jason is Ted. I have no idea about these two. I just feel bad for the kids. Once you have kids with someone you are tied to them forever. Even if they turn out to be an awful person.

    • V says:

      Agree Case. I don’t watch Ted Lasso so he has no power over me!! Lol

    • Kate says:

      Yes. The “I was scared she was going to take the kids from me so I told my attorney to serve her with papers that already had been drawn up the next day” thing is emotionally manipulative. It smells like he’s using this admission of fear to seem pitiable and non-aggressive when his fear actually led him to be quite aggressive.

  27. Eggbert says:

    I don’t think saying Brooklyn is better than LA for children is much of a legal

  28. Glad I'm Not Her says:

    It’s possible that Olivia and Harry plan to marry and have kids together. It’s reasonable that he would want to raise his (bio) kids around his extended family and in his native country. If that’s the case, and Olivia and Jason can’t come to an agreement, then I see this custody dispute going the ugly way of Roseanne Barr. I remember she moved to Hawaii after a divorce and had to pay for her ex (and his new bride) to come to Hawaii every month to spend time with their son. Eventually she got sick of doing that and sought sole custody of their kid. I see Olivia petitioning the court (and winning) to relocate the kids to London, where they have been going to school, have friends, have half siblings, etc. I don’t see Harry moving to LA to live full time, esp if he has a kid or two with Olivia. He sold his homes in the US, I believe.

  29. AmelieOriginal says:

    They’re both in the wrong here. Olivia is pulling a Halle Berry (Halle wanted to move to France and the judge blocked her because Gabriel Aubry wasn’t having it which is ironic because she and Olivier Martinez got divorced anyways) here by threatening to take her kids to the UK permanently and Jason is in the wrong for insisting the kids live in NYC when they’ve been in LA for much of the last few years.

    I didn’t know Olivia’s dad was British so I guess she could probably get UK citizenship if she didn’t get already and relocate to London. It makes a lot more sense now why she would do that. Also I forgot her real last name was Cockburn lol.

    • sunny says:

      This is a pretty reasonable take. I feel like they need all the mediation. It feels like LA is the reasonable compromise here. Both London and New York seem like selfish choices.

      Good luck to these children.

    • Kebbie says:

      She wants to raise them in Los Angeles, not the UK. She has not made any effort at all to move them to London permanently. That is just something he claimed she said to him to defend how and when she was served.

  30. BuzzKell says:

    So, my two cents is that he’s a dick. He cried hard with the news that she was seeing Harry and cried that as far as he knew they were still together …. sorry, but I don’t think she’s showing up hand in hand with someone while still lying to her significant other with kids …. His answers seem sucky and I think he’s lying about her wanting to move to London. He tried to humiliate her by serving her when and how. Smartless podcast with Tina Fey had some sucky story about Jason a long time ago while writing for SNL that he was a suck then. Jason has an agenda here, and is crying to anyone that she ruined the family. I am sure this man and his sucky attitude had NOTHING to do with it (snarky sarcasm)

    Above mentioned that he is feeding in to the misogyny of scorned man story telling and I can see the women who are falling for it calling her all sorts of names. MEN DO THIS ALL THE DAMN TIME. Exes do this to currents, they say it to friends, to family, to other women who demonize the woman for wanting better and finding it. Seeing as though she has said nothing but where it counts (in court for her kids) is all I need to know. And then hopefully some therapy for those kids because it’s a life change that needs discussing and nurturing.

    • Ariel says:

      I concur. I see a lot of internalized misogyny and harsh judgment of her choices – while everyone seems to give him the benefit of the doubt for being a “good guy”.
      He seems like a jackass whose ego is bruised from being left- playing like he is the wronged party and the “nice guy”. I don’t buy it.

  31. candy says:

    If you’re working in those 3 cities, having the kids based in NYC makes sense.

    • Kebbie says:

      Nobody is/was working in NYC. Jason’s argument is that he’s “a New Yorker through and through” and that they initially lived there. Her argument was that they’ve lived in Los Angeles for years and that’s where they go to school. And the London thing is something he claimed she said, neither has made any effort to move them to London. He does film there for Ted Lasso part of the year though.

  32. AnneL says:

    I don’t think Jason meant for Olivia to be served in that manner. Process servers get the job done however and whenever they can. If Jason didn’t want her served at home, for understandable reasons, then given her schedule at the time odds were it was going to be in public, possibly in front of other people. Servers aren’t known for their tact.

    I’m on the side of the kids here. They have lived in three far-flung cities already in their short lives, any one of which could work well for them. With support, kids adjust. Jason is not originally from New York but he has lived there for a long time and has a social framework. Maybe Olivia has one in LA, too. They’ll probably just end up splitting their time between those two cities.

    There is no way Olivia will be allowed to just move to London with the kids, though. I don’t see a court allowing that.

    Another thing is….we don’t know what kind of parents they are. Don’t get me wrong, No parent is perfect, most try their best and love their kids, and they all deserve the chance to raise them in conjunction with ex-partners who also want to and are capable of doing their share of parenting. But in deciding who should get more custodial time in anything other than a 50/50 arrangement, shouldn’t the system take it into account if one parent is significantly more prepared, patient, affectionate and effective at nurturing and guiding the kids?

    I don’t know if that’s how it works. I don’t know if that’s the situation with Jason and Olivia. My guess is no, that they are both good enough parents. I just think that’s something that should be asked. The city where they live matters, but so does the people with whom they live.

    For the record, Brooklyn is a great place to raise kids if you can afford it, which I’m sure they can. I don’t know which neighborhood Jason lives in but I imagine it’s a nice one, like Brooklyn Heights or Boerum Hill or the like. They’re very kid-friendly. My sister raised her kids there, in three different neighborhoods, and I loved all of them. I would have loved to raise my kids in Brooklyn.

  33. Ramona says:

    Team kids and they should call Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck. It seems from the outside they managed well their divorce and the kids custody.

  34. Qtpi says:

    NYC seems like it would be the easiest to share. In the middle of LA and London. Their jobs take them all over the place. What a disaster.

    Edited to add that I highly doubt the Harry situation will still be on 10 months from now. Age difference and her having kids will probably make it hard to maintain that relationship.

  35. Rochelle says:

    As far as I’m concerned, the children have already been living in London and LA. They have school arrangements in both places and friendship networks, if that’s where they’ve been splitting their time.

    It’s their father who is trying to change that. NY is the new addition.

    • Kirsten says:

      Both children lived in New York from the time they were born through some time in 2019.

      • Cava 24 says:

        They lived in LA for nearly all of 2018 (it’s on her Instagram) and they all moved back to LA when he was writing Ted Lasso Season 1 in early 2019.

      • Kirsten says:

        Even if that’s accurate, that’s still four years for one kid, two for another (half and nearly half their lives), the years that the two of them lived there, and he lived there before they were together. I don’t get people’s weird insistence that neither he nor the kids have any connection to New York when that’s blatantly not true.

      • Cava 24 says:

        Nope, they spent most of 2018 in LA. Olivia posted about it on her IG the end of 2018. They spent part of 2019 in LA so Jason could write Ted Lasso S1 and part in Brooklyn and part in Brooklyn in a rental in another neighborhood, according to Jason.

      • Cava 24 says:

        Home state for custody is about where the kids lived, not where the parents lived before they had kids. This isn’t about Jason and the length of time he lived in NY. It’s about where the kids have lived most recently and are established- have schools, know other kids etc

  36. Tisme says:

    He 100 percent wanted her served at her event…what a load of bullsh*t

  37. Carrot says:

    Douche move. Absolutely designed to inflict as much damage as possible. The client instructs.

    My father conducted this sort of assault on my mother for years. Documents served at public events, at work, on the eve of every holiday. Tiny BS filings that had no merit, all to cow and spread misery. Happy Christmas, you’re served. The client instructs.

    It’s not usually necessary to actually place documents in hand for it to be legal personal service. There’s no way it had to be while the woman was on stage at a professional function. That was orchestrated. It is threatening, as in, I can get to you anywhere, any time and ruin whatever you’ve got going on. Clearly, his legal team was on board for that.

    Sudeikis showed the world who he is in reality.

  38. Jane Q. Doe says:

    Really, the ideal thing to do would just be for Jason to agree to continue Ted Lasso! That way, he’d be in London 1/2 the year, and the kids can be there with Olivia and her boyfriend. And isn’t Jason still dating that British gal who plays Bex?

    I get these folks wanna live where they wanna live, but a) the kids’ stability comes first, and b) Olivia’s a director who can probably chose where her next movie films. Jason will have tons of money and clout when Ted Lasso ends, he can pick and chose his next project, including possibly location. They can do their jobs from anywhere. The kids need a home base, and they should revolve around them.

    (It’ll be interesting to see if Olivia and Harry last beyond when the movie and award season’s over. That screams showmance to me.)

    • Cava 24 says:

      Jason told her he was going to do Season 4 and that he was fine with the kids being in school in LA to facilitate that this fall. He changed the plan in April and decided he was going to live in Brooklyn and is trying to act like he is baffled that she rejected his oh so nice request that they all live in Brooklyn even though they were in ongoing negotiations about where to live. His filing makes it sound like it was just this nice thing he wanted and he was surprised she said no. He had let her plan to have the kids in LA and most likely London to film, which likely meant that she planned her schedule around that, then he backed out. She likely told him that the kids can’t go back and forth that much so if you want 50% custody, you would have to live in LA. He is framing that as her taking his kids away unless he lived in LA. If he wants to live in Brooklyn, fine but he’s the one limiting his time with the kids by doing that.

      Her wanting to take the kids to London may just be to fulfill a work obligation she lined up bc the kids would be in London for S4. She hasn’t said if she even asked for that, he isn’t giving enough detail (permanent/ temporary etc)

  39. Div says:

    Jason’s story makes no sense when you think about it.

    He claims she is up and moving them to London permanently, but he’s also claiming that she told him that he can only see his kids on holidays if he doesn’t move to Los Angeles? The kids are young but have spent the bulk of their lives where they have developed memories (post 3) in Los Angeles where they are apparently enrolled in school…four years is a long time at that age.

    Also, even if the London thing was true (which doesn’t appear to be the case, as legally she’s pushing for Los Angeles)…her father is British, she has several immediate family members in London/the UK, and she apparently grew up partially in Ireland. Him framing a potential move as only about Harry sits oddly, like it’s ignoring that she has family ties and personal ties to the UK, and trying to smear her as ‘look at her running off for her boytoy.’

    I don’t know, between Jason’s PR obviously running to People, Page Six, etc., the judge denying Jason’s attempt to hold the court proceedings in New York and tossing it back to L.A., the court server, etc….I suspect he’s probably a real douche under that nice guy facade. I get that Olivia is not well liked on here and hasn’t handled everything perfectly, but that doesn’t mean the bulk of the evidence doesn’t point towards her being in the right.