Olivia Wilde has won a major legal battle with ex-husband Jason Sudeikis after he sought to fight for custody of their children in court in New York.
The actress and director, who is now dating singer Harry Styles, has been locked in an increasingly bitter war with Ted Lasso star Sudeikis over the future of their son Otis, eight, and daughter, five, in the wake of their 2020 split.
Now a New York judge has thrown out Sudeikis’ bid to have the custody battle in New York — where he lives — saying “California is the children’s home state” and the location where a court must decide on their future.
Wilde, an actress and director of award-winning comedy Booksmart, has reported made plans to relocate from Los Angeles to London with 28-year-old former One Direction star Styles.
She accused Sudeikis of serving custody papers “in the most aggressive way possible” when she was handed an envelope on stage while she was presenting to more than 4,000 film executives at CinemaCon in April.
According to legal documents, the former couple had been amicably co-parenting, but the custody battle turned bitter over Wilde’s possible move to London. Sudeikis, 46, then filed a petition in October last year to the New York court.
Wilde said they had agreed the children would go to school in Los Angeles next year while Sudeikis was in London filming the final series of his Apple TV show Ted Lasso.
“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,” said Wilde.
“When I did not agree, since the children have not lived in New York for several years, Jason filed these papers.”
Throwing out Sudekis’ case, the New York judge concluded “New York was not the home state of the subject children” and “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.”
The custody battle will now move to California, unless Wilde and Sudekis can privately agree on their children’s futures.
In her legal filing, Wilde also addressed the infamous April incident, accusing Sudeikis – her partner of nine years from 2011 – of “outrageous legal tactics”.
“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.
“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 representative for the actor said after the incident that Sudeikis had not known how the papers were going to be delivered.
