Director Olivia Wilde claimed her ex, Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis, hoped to "embarrass" and "threaten" her by having custody papers served to her while she was on stage at an entertainment industry conference in Las Vegas back in April.
Wilde, 38, and Sudeikis, 46, started dating in 2011 and went on to have two children–son Otis, 8, and daughter Daisy, 5.
The couple separated in 2020.
A video of Wilde being handed a manilla envelope while presenting her upcoming directorial thriller, Don't Worry Darling, at CinemaCon showed her maintaining her professionalism as she skimmed over the contents handed to her by a court process server in front of the audience.
According to court filings obtained by the Daily Mail, the couple's former co-parenting agreement has devolved into a bitter dispute over Wilde's future plan to relocate to London where her current boyfriend, Harry Styles, lives.
The 28-year-old pop singer is a co-star in Don't Worry Darling along with Wilde, who is also the upcoming film's director.
Wilde and Sudeikis had been co-parenting with alternating weeks of "parental access" while both actors split their time between Los Angeles, New York, and London.
But when the former couple had a disagreement about where they would raise their children permanently, Sudeikis was prompted to file a custody petition.
His petitions sought to allow the children to be with him at his "permanent home" in Brooklyn after he finished production on the new season for Apple TV+'s Ted Lasso.
But she expressed wanting to live with their children in Los Angeles and had asked Sudeikis to join them during a discussion over custody in April.
Wilde said in the filing:
"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."
"When I did not agree, since the children have not lived in New York for several years, Jason filed these papers."
Social media users withheld sympathy.
Others remained impartial.
Wilde won the custody battle on Wednesday when a judge dismissed Sudeikis' petition, ruling that their children's home state is California.
According to the legal filing, "Judge Powell and this Referee agreed that New York was not the home state of the subject children; but rather California was the children's home state."
"Therefore, for the reasons stated on the record on July 15, 2022, respondent's motion to dismiss the custody petitions filed on October 21, 2021 is granted as this court finds that New York does not have jurisdiction to hear the custody petitions as New York is not the home state of the subject children."
Wilde talked about the moment the process server handed her the custody papers for the first time in the latest court motion, and she slammed Sudeikis for his "outrageous legal tactics" and for delivering the documents "mid-speech."
“Jason’s actions were clearly intended to threaten me and catch me off guard,” said Wilde.
She continued:
"He could have served me discreetly, but instead he chose to serve me in the most aggressive manner possible."
"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."
A source close to Sudeikis claimed the actor did not know the legal papers would be delivered in such a humiliating way.
After fearing Wilde was going to take their children from him after she mentioned her intentions of relocating to London "following the close of school in 2023," Sudeikis asked his attorney to serve her the petition and summons knowing she was traveling to Los Angeles the next day.
He requested the arrangement take place at Heathrow Airport rather than at Styles' home, where she is currently residing, because "Otis and Daisy might be present."
Ultimately, Wilde did not receive the papers at that time due to a "series of logistical mishaps."
He said the process server eventually learned of Wilde's appearance at the industry event in Las Vegas and managed to find her at an event panel.
Sudeikis expressed his regrets for the manner in which the process server completed the task.
“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," said Sudeikis, according to court documents.
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