Olivia Wilde served custody papers onstage at CinemaCon

For almost a decade, Olivia Wilde (known for her role as Thirteen in House and directing Netflix’s hit Booksmart) and Jason Sudeikis (the star of Horrible Bosses and Ted Lasso) were one of the highest-profile couples in Hollywood: they started dating at the end of 2011, got engaged in 2013 –never got married– and have two children together, Otis Alexander and Daisy Josephine. A year and a half ago, at the end of 2020, they announced their separation, and just a couple of weeks later, Wilde’s new partner was revealed: she was dating Harry Styles. Now, their separation has taken an unexpected turn that brought it to the front page of the tabloids.

It all started Tuesday night, when Wilde, 38, got onstage at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, during the CinemaCon festival. She was there to present her second directorial piece, Don’t Worry Darling, where she also acts next to Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, and Harry Styles, her current partner who she met during the filming. As she started to talk about the movie, to be released next fall, a woman approached her on stage and handed her a manila envelope labeled “Personal and Confidential.”

“This is for me?” said Wilde, visibly surprised, remarking it seemed “very mysterious.” Witnesses allegedly claim they thought it was a script. After taking a quick look inside the envelope, she kept going on with her presentation without skipping a beat, presenting her movie’s trailer and offering details about it. Nothing seemed to be off track until Deadline shared what was inside the envelope: legal documents regarding her children’s custody, sent by Sudeikis’s lawyers.

Their reps have provided no comment on the matter, although sources close to Sudeikis have told both Variety and People that “he had no prior knowledge of the time or place that the envelope would have been delivered.” They also claim “this would solely be up to the process service company involved and he would never condone her being served in such an inappropriate manner,” and that the documents “were drawn up to establish jurisdiction relating to the children of Ms. Wilde and Mr. Sudeikis.” On the other hand, a family law attorney that spoke to People magazine said it’s “highly unlikely” that Sudeikis didn’t know the details about how the documents were going to be delivered to his ex-fiancée. “If you’re going to go to that sort of extreme length to do it publicly, to do it in an embarrassing way, I can’t see the client not knowing about it. You’re obligated as an attorney to share most things that you’re doing with your client,” he explained.

The intrusion, either planned or unexpected, has also taken a toll on the festival. Wilde’s presentation was made in front of over 4,000 film industry members, who acclaimed the filmmaker after introducing her movie. According to Deadline, every person in that room that is not a part of the industry needs to buy a specific badge to get in, meaning the woman that delivered the envelope had to identify herself when she bought it.

CinemaCon’s managing director said to Deadline that “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. In light of this incident, we are re-evaluating our security procedures to ensure the safety of all our attendees.”