LOS ANGELES — Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis are being sued by a nanny who got caught up in — and was fired during — the messy breakup of their relationship.
Ericka Genaro, who according to the lawsuit had worked as nanny to the former couple’s two kids since 2018, is accusing Sudeikis, Wilde and ML Management LLC of discrimination and failure to accommodate her disability under the state of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. They are also being accused of retaliation as described under the act and of failure to engage in the “interactive process” required.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday with the Los Angeles Superior Court and reviewed by the L.A. Times, repeats many of the allegations that were made in a two-part Daily Mail interview published last October.
Sudeikis and Wilde’s joint response Tuesday was the same statement they issued in response to that interview:
“As parents, it is incredibly upsetting to learn that a former nanny of our two young children would choose to make such false and scurrilous accusations about us publicly,” the statement said in October. “Her now 18 month long campaign of harassing us, as well as loved ones, close friends and colleagues, has reached its unfortunate apex. We will continue to focus on raising and protecting our children with the sincere hope that she will now choose to leave our family alone.”
Genaro’s lawsuit places her at the center of the couple’s breakup, which began quietly and then gained wide attention when Wilde began a relationship with singer-actor Harry Styles, the star of her directorial effort “Don’t Worry Darling.”
After Wilde “abruptly” left the home she had shared with Sudeikis and the children in November 2020, Genaro’s “anxiety from the situation in the ... household became close to unbearable,” the lawsuit says, as Sudeikis allegedly leaned on Genaro’s presence “for support.” Genaro’s role in the children’s lives increased “exponentially” as she was asked to spend time with them on the weekends when Wilde normally would have been around, the suit says.
Genaro “became increasingly anxious and stressed” with the “Ted Lasso” star’s tendency to “seemingly require [her] to stay up at night after the kids were put to bed to talk,” which he hadn’t done before Wilde’s departure, the lawsuit says. Late in the month, according to the lawsuit, Genaro decided to confide in Wilde about Sudeikis’ conversations and her anxiety and stress, only to learn days later — as she, Sudeikis and the kids were heading to London — that Wilde had told her former partner what the nanny had shared.
The actors and Genaro agreed months later to participate in group therapy with a therapist who also counseled Genaro individually, the document says.
In the lawsuit, Genaro alleges she told Sudeikis in mid-January about her “anxiety, stress and physical pain” related to their breakup. On Feb. 1, Genaro says, she told Sudeikis that her osteopath had advised her to stop working for the couple for health reasons, though she offered to stay on for up to five months to give them time to hire a new nanny.
A day later, her osteopath advised an anxiety-ridden Genaro to require three days of “radio silence” from all parties, sharing that information with the therapist who told Sudeikis, the lawsuit says.
“Rather than honor the restriction of a three day leave of absence from the Osteopath, within hours Sudeikis demanded to speak with Plaintiff immediately. When Plaintiff responded she is under the Osteopath’s orders to not speak with anyone because of her anxiety, Sudeikis terminated her on the spot, and directed MLM to get Plaintiff out of his house and into a hotel,” the lawsuit alleges. “Plaintiff reached out to Wilde for support in an attempt to for help to merely have her restrictions honored, to no avail.”
Asking for a jury trial, Genaro is seeking general and punitive damages, lost wages plus interest, and payment of medical and legal expenses.
“Ms. Wilde and Mr. Sudeikis really stepped in it by firing my client when she needed a 72-hour break from the emotional chaos their split created, as prescribed by her physician,” Ron Zambrano, attorney for Genaro, said in a statement. “Employees are most vulnerable when they need time off to care for themselves. Laws are in place for just that reason, to afford them peace of mind to take that time without fear of losing their jobs.”
The couple ended their seven-year engagement at the beginning of 2020, according to People, which reported the breakup in November of that year — when Genaro alleges Wilde abruptly left the house. Sudeikis and Wilde had been dating since late 2011, got engaged shortly after the 2012 holidays, and share children Otis, 8, and Daisy, 6.
In her Daily Mail interview, the nanny painted a picture of a distraught, heartbroken Sudeikis taken off-guard by Wilde’s budding relationship with Styles — distraught to the point where he allegedly laid down in front of Wilde’s car to keep the “Booksmart” director from leaving one day.
“I was caught off guard because I lived with them and was around them and I never saw any of this happen,” the nanny told the outlet. “I said to Olivia, ‘Jason told me you’re f— somebody.’ And she kind of rolled her eyes and looked the other way, and said, ‘He’s just jealous of me.’”
Wilde and Styles parted ways last November, reportedly “taking a break” amid “different priorities” after nearly two years together.
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