Olivia Wilde hits out at claims she ‘abandoned’ her kids
Olivia Wilde has put to bed claims she has ‘abandoned’ her two children by critics who scrutinise her relationship with Harry Styles.
The mum-of-two spoke about motherhood with Elle magazine for their November 2022 cover story.
Olivia shares eight-year-old son Otis and six-year-old daughter Daisy with ex Jason Sudeikis.
According to the Don’t Worry Darling director, people often criticise her when she is not photographed with her children, like when she attended Harry’s Love on Tour concert at Madison Square Garden last month.
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“I share custody of my kids with my ex,” she said. “If I’m photographed not with my kids, people assume I have abandoned them, like my kids are just somewhere in a hot car without me. The suggestion is that I have abandoned my role as a mother.”
Olivia, 38, said she actually prefers to keep her children out of the public eye. “You know why you don’t see me with my kids? Because I don’t let them get photographed. Do you know the lengths that I go to to protect my kids from being seen by you?” she said.
The House alum’s family life has had extreme scrutiny on social media especially after she was served custody papers by Sudeikis while on stage at CinemaCon in April this year.
The former couple got engaged in 2013 and called it quits in November 2020.
Jason said he had no idea she was going to be served during her presentation on stage and shared how he was ‘deeply upset’ by how the events unfolded and feels ‘great distress at the manner in which service was made’.
Olivia’s subsequent relationship with the ‘As it Was’ singer has led to claims she had an affair, after the pair were first linked romantically in January 2021 after they met during the production of Don’t Worry Darling.
Olivia called the speculation around the alleged overlapping timeline ‘complete horses**t’ in an interview with Vanity Fair.
“The complete horses**t idea that I left Jason for Harry is completely inaccurate,” she said. “Our relationship was long over before I met Harry. Like any relationship that ends, it doesn’t end overnight.”
Olivia called her children her ‘world’ and her ‘best friends’ and said she took time off work to become a ‘stay-at-home mom’ to spend more time with them.
“It became clear to me that this year was a time for me to be a stay-at-home mom,” she told Variety. “It was not the year for me to be on a set, which is totally all-encompassing. It was time for me to pause and devote myself to the kids when I have them.” Olivia labelled co-parent with her ex ‘tricky’ in an interview with on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
Olivia and Jason have had to ‘reshape’ their family as they co-parent their two children in Los Angeles, New York and London, where Jason films Ted Lasso.
“My priority is them,” she told the host. “That’s what it is. It’s as long as they’re happy and they’re healthy then, my ex and I, we agree on that. They are everything to us.”