Olivia Wilde was served custody papers by her ex and the father of her children Jason Sudeikis while live on stage at the 2022 CinemaCon – where she was discussing her new movie, which sparked her romance with her current boyfriend Harry Styles. 

The 38-year-old actress was in the middle of a presentation for 4,100 film industry executives about her upcoming thriller Don’t Worry Darling in Las Vegas on Tuesday night, when she received legal documents from her former partner.

He is best known for his starring role in Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso. 

Deadline sources claimed on Wednesday that the manila envelope that was placed on stage at Caesars Palace’s The Colosseum, contained custody papers from the 46-year-old Emmy winner.

And Variety has claimed that Sudeikis did not know Wilde would be served the papers in such a public and humiliating way. The actress is currently dating pop star Styles, 28, who she met while she was directing her upcoming thriller, in which he stars alongside Florence Pugh. 

A source told the publication: ‘Papers were drawn up to establish jurisdiction relating to the children of Ms. Wilde and Mr. Sudeikis.

‘Mr. Sudeikis had no prior knowledge of the time or place that the envelope would have been delivered as this would solely be up to the process service company involved and he would never condone her being served in such an inappropriate manner.’ 

It had initially been reported that the documents were an unsolicited script sent by a fan in the hopes of receiving Wilde’s attention. 

Wilde was briefly interrupted when an unidentified person approached from the front rows of the audience at the Vegas event, and slid the manila envelope across the front of the stage toward her.

‘This is for me?’ Wilde asked, before opening the envelope and briefly reading the documents. She then continued with her presentation. 

Wilde and Sudeikis began dating in November 2011 and got engaged in December 2012, before eventually splitting in November 2020. They share two children together – eight-year-old son Otis and five-year-old daughter Daisy.

Details of their current custody arrangement remain private, and neither Olivia nor Jason have commented on the contents of the envelope.  

At the time the unusual moment sparked furious speculation among attendees and reporters at the annual gathering of cinema owners and Hollywood studios about the envelope’s contents, with some even wondering if she had just got ‘served’ with a subpoena to appear in court.

Reporter Chris Lee detailed her reaction on stage in a tweet, which read: ‘Half way through her schpiel about Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde was handed a manila envelope. Seemed like she got served a lawsuit!’ 

He said that the Booksmart director said: ‘This is for me? Is this a script? Ok got it. Thank you.’ 

Lee added: ‘I thought it was part of the presentation or a joke. But then…that was the end of it.’ 

Another audience member, Jim Vejvoda, tweeted: ‘Was Olivia Wilde served with papers onstage at CinemaCon?

‘Some woman walked up to the stage and left an envelope for her. Olivia opened it and then never addressed it and continued on with her presentation. 

‘We were expecting a bit but she never addressed the papers.’ 

CinemaCon said they are now reevaluating their security procedures, in light of the incident: ‘We have never in the history of the convention had an incident where a delegate has approached the stage who was not authorized to be there,’ Mitch Neuhauser Managing Director of CinemaCon said in a statement to Deadline.

‘In light of this incident, we are reevaluating our security procedures to ensure the safety of all our attendees.’ In order to get into Vegas’ Colosseum for CinemaCon, non-industry attendees need to purchase a badge. 

Deadline reported that the papers were delivered to Wilde by a process server who was hired by Sudeikis’ Brooklyn-based attorneys to issue the legal documents. 

The process of serving someone with papers must be conducted by a third party who is over the age of 18. This person can be a law officer, a friend or family member, or – as was the case with Wilde – a hired process server who is paid to deliver the legal documents in-person. 

Rules for serving papers vary from state to state, however typically the law dictates that papers must be handed to a defendant directly. 

Wilde’s latest film Don’t Worry Darling is being released by Warner Brothers this coming September and stars her much younger boyfriend Styles. 

The duo formed a close bond while shooting the psychological thriller, which also features the likes of Florence Pugh and Gemma Chan, in 2020. 

News of Wilde and Sudeikis’s split came on November 13, 2020 with sources claiming at the time that it was ‘amicable’ and that their two children son Otis and daughter Daisy Josephine would remain a ‘priority.’ 

An insider also said that the pair had actually separated at the start of the year, months before their split was made public.  

A source close to the couple told PEOPLE: ‘The split happened at the beginning of the year [2020]. It’s been amicable and they’ve transitioned into a great co-parenting routine. The children are the priority and the heart of the family’s relationship.’ 

Despite the initial reports of an amicable split, a source claimed to Entertainment Tonight in January 2021, that Jason had been ‘really hurt’ by her moving on with Harry. 

A source said: ‘[Jason] has been really hurt and somewhat jealous that Olivia has moved on with Harry.’

There have also been conflicting reports as to the timeline of Olivia’s split from Jason and when she started her new relationship with Harry.

The original PEOPLE report on their split claimed that Olivia and Jason broke up ‘at the beginning’ of 2020, but further sources claimed ‘she and Jason were very much together as recently as this fall [2020].’

A report from UsWeekly claimed: ‘Olivia called off the engagement in early November [2020] but only after she already had gotten close to Harry.’ Olivia cast Harry in her film in September 2020 after Shia LaBeouf was fired from the role.

Rumours of Harry and Olivia’s romance were confirmed when they were seen holding hands at his agent’s wedding in Montecito, California, on January 3 2021, raising eyebrows over just how quickly she had moved on.

There were conflicting reports on the exact timing of their split, with a source claiming to PEOPLE in a January 2021 report: ‘Jason feels that the timeline that Olivia and Harry would like people to believe – that she and Jason split ages ago, long before she became involved with Harry – is simply not accurate.’

The source added that the trouble began around the start of production on Wilde’s sophomore directorial effort in the fall of 2020.

‘She began filming [Don’t Worry Darling] in September, and by October, he began to get the impression that she wanted out. By November, they’d announced their split.’

The source emphasized ‘that’s how quickly it happened,’ adding that ‘none of it happened until she began filming with Harry.’

In a December 2021 interview with American Vogue the actress referred to the timeline dispute, telling the magazine: ‘It’s obviously tempting to correct a false narrative.

‘But I think what you realize is that when you’re really happy, it doesn’t matter what strangers think about you.’

She added: ‘All that matters to you is what’s real, and what you love, and who you love.’

Jason meanwhile confirmed in a 2021 interview with GQ that the couple split in November 2020, admitting that ‘I’ll have a better understanding of why in a year.’

‘And an even better one in two, and an even greater one in five, and it’ll go from being, you know, a book of my life to becoming a chapter to a paragraph to a line to a word to a doodle,’ he continued.

‘That’s an experience that you either learn from or make excuses about. You take some responsibility for it, hold yourself accountable for what you do, but then also endeavor to learn something beyond the obvious from it.’

Olivia scrambled to cast Harry to star in her second film after initially casting Shia LaBeouf in the lead role. 

LaBeouf was fired from the project in September 2020 because she has a ‘zero a**hole policy’ and his behavior was ‘off-putting,’ according to Variety, with a source saying: ‘He is not an easy guy to work with.’

Shortly after he was replaced, Shia entered a rehab facility after his ex-girlfriend, musician FKA twigs, claimed he knowingly infected her with an STD and relentlessly abused her.

Jason also moved on, embarking on a relationship with his Ted Lasso co-star, British glamour model Keeley Hazell, 35, last year. 

Jason and Olivia met at a Saturday Night Live wrap party in May 2011, when both were recently single. 

Nine months prior, Olivia ended her eight-year marriage to Italian-American filmmaker Tao Ruspoli and Jason had just divorced screenwriter Kay Cannon, whom he was married to from 2004 to 2010. 

During a 2017 appearance on The Late Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the Horrible Bosses star spilled on his first interaction with Wilde.

‘I actually came off looking a lot cooler than I really am because I had heard through the grapevine, through mutual friends that weren’t exactly her best girlfriends, that would report back, “Oh, you know, I think she’s dating someone,” so I didn’t make any sort of moves,’ he recalled at the time. 

‘I was just very, very busy with other things.’

The actress echoed the thoughts, explaining:  ‘I was just learning to be by myself; I’d been divorced nine months. 

‘We were both seeing people but were single. He seemed to really see me, see through the bull***t.’

Wilde and Sudeikis announced their engagement in 2013 before the births of their two children.

Speaking to Net-a-Porter’s Porter Edit in February 2016, Wilde explained how she believed becoming a parent with her ex was a stronger commitment for the couple than tying the knot.

‘We are seriously connected,’ she said. ‘Before you have a child, marriage is the ultimate commitment and promise to one another, and then once you have a child, it’s like, ‘Oh, we’re committed and promised already.’

Nearly a year and a half after they first met, Wilde and Styles are still going strong. The actress recently supported the popstar as he headlined the Coachella Valley Music Festival the past two weekends. 

She was captured cheering him on in the crowd as he dominated the stage with a guitar in hand.

Recent reports have suggested that Olivia and Harry are getting very serious after she introduced the pop star to her two children. 

Insiders have claimed that despite it looking like a ‘showbiz hook up’ at first, it has become clear that the loved-up couple are much more than that.

Harry, who has previously dated a slew of celebrity girlfriends, has allegedly never been so serious about anyone before, reports The Sun.

A source said: ‘This looked like quite a showbizzy thing at first, two glamorous people hooking up but now it’s obviously a lot more than that.

‘They held back a bit at first but now that things are more settled the time was right to do the next thing.

‘It’s really exciting for them – and for Harry it’s the most serious he has ever really been about somebody.’

It was reported that Harry is ‘slowly’ getting to know the children of his girlfriend Olivia almost a year into their relationship. 

Olivia is currently living in the UK with the singer while estranged husband Jason films the third series of the comedy drama Ted Lasso.

She has her two children in London while he is working on the Apple TV programme, set in the UK.

‘Ironically, it is Jason’s work that means they can be together,’ said a source, adding that friends are expecting Harry and Olivia to marry.