Strange Things Everyone Ignores About Olivia Wilde
Olivia Wilde has been one of the most talked about celebrities for years, but much of what gets repeated about the star is a lot of the same, like that supposed feud with Florence Pugh or her messy custody battle. Even when Wilde has given the public weird nuggets of information or been caught in sticky situations, there is a tendency for the constant flow of content about the star to push things out of people's minds. That said, there are plenty of forgotten facts and stories about Wilde that are worthy of another look, as they highlight how people have chosen to overlook some truly strange things about the star.
Wilde began her screen career in 2003 with the miniseries "Skin," followed by a small role in the comedy film "The Girl Next Door," and her breakout role on "The O.C." Wilde's 13-episode arc saw her playing a bisexual character who dated both Seth Cohen and Marissa Cooper, which created lots of buzz for the teen soap and led to Wilde's ascent in Hollywood. She went on to establish herself as an actor in film ("The Change-Up," "Tron: Legacy," "Cowboys & Aliens,"), television ("House," "Vinyl"), and, to a lesser extent, on the stage, and then added directing into her repertoire. While Wilde's professional life has evolved in a relatively standard way for an actor-director, her personal life has contained more than a few oddities. Here are some of the strangest things that everyone tends to ignore about Olivia Wilde.
She's a Nepo Baby who comes from a family of notable writers
Even though nepotism in the entertainment industry has been happening forever, the discussion came to a head in 2023, thanks to New York Magazine's buzzy feature on the "nepo-baby boom." The cover, featuring actors like Jack Quaid and Zoe Kravitz, caused people to start digging around for other, lesser-known children of successful people. Olivia Wilde largely escaped the conversation, although she comes from a family that no doubt gave her a leg up in show business. This is because none of her relatives are household names, although her privilege cannot be understated. Her parents' friends included bigwigs like Peter Jennings and Julie Christie, and they frequently welcomed Hollywood royalty such as Stephen Spielberg into their home. Even Wilde's babysitter — renowned journalist and speaker Christopher Hitchens — was famous.
Wilde's parents are Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, both of whom have written for large publications like Vanity Fair. Andrew is a Harper's Magazine editor and a Peabody award-winning documentarian, while Leslie is an Emmy-winning producer and investigative journalist. Her grandfather Claud was a renowned British journalist who also dabbled in TV writing, and two of her paternal uncles were also well-known writers. Through her family, Wilde had deep connections to Hollywood and a clear leg up in the world. "Olivia was exposed to a lot of very clever people when she was little," her mother Leslie once told The Huffington Post. "How many girls were told to go to bed by Mick Jagger?" she asked. Probably a lot, just not in that same context.
She has dual citizenship, but is only ever referred to as American
When actors have an accent, there are typically plenty of references to their country of ancestry in the media. The same goes for actors who are not Caucasian, even if they were born in America. For instance, Zoe Saldana was born in New Jersey, but you would be hard-pressed to find any article that doesn't highlight her Dominican and Puerto Rican roots. But because she doesn't look or sound like it, no one remembers that Olivia Wilde is a dual citizen with both American and Irish passports. It is sometimes referenced in profiles of the star, but rarely in a substantial way and certainly not in a manner that has caused her to be labeled as Irish-American by fans. But Wilde not only has citizenship in Ireland, she also has lots of family there. Her paternal line has been there ever since her grandfather moved from Britain in the aftermath of World War II, and Ireland is where her father was born and reared.
Not only are her roots Irish, but Wilde herself has spent a fair amount of time in the Emerald Isle. Born in New York City and raised in Washington, D.C., Wilde spent every summer in Ardmore, a small village in County Waterford. After graduating from the upscale Massachusetts private school Phillips Academy, she headed to Dublin to train for a career as an actor. She spent the summer at the Gaiety School of Acting before coming back to the United States and throwing herself into auditioning.
She chose Wilde — which most people don't know is a stage name — to honor Oscar Wilde
Yet another example of Olivia Wilde's connection to Ireland is her stage name, which was chosen as an homage to one of the most famous Irish people to ever exist, poet and playwright Oscar Wilde. Most people ignore the fact that Wilde is not Olivia's original surname, perhaps because they don't know or perhaps because she adopted it so long ago. Olivia was only a high schooler when she chose her stage name to preemptively separate her acting identity from her personal one. "My mother thought it was a good idea for me as well, so I could have my own identity outside of my family," Olivia told The Observer. "She suggested I pick something Irish and something that I'd always be inspired by."
The practice of changing one's name in Hollywood is not uncommon — everyone from Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag) to Vin Diesel (born Mark Vincent) has a stage name. Some simply cut their last name, like Tom Cruise (born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV), while others alter their first name only slightly (for instance, Emma Stone, who changed her name from Emily to get into SAG). Olivia Wilde went the Portman route and chose a whole new last name, but it was certainly not at random. "At the time, I was doing The Importance of Being Earnest — I was playing Gwendolyn, and I was so in love with it," she explained. "Oscar Wilde is someone who I respect for so many reasons — a revolutionary, a comedian, and a profound thinker."
She used to be a literal princess
A lot of Hollywood stars think of themselves as royalty, but few have genuine connections to nobility. Olivia Wilde is the rare star who does — or did, at least. By the time Wilde got enough traction to court media attention, she had already acquired a royal title. Yes, Wilde was a literal princess thanks to her then-husband Tao Ruspoli, a filmmaker, flamenco guitarist, and descendant of Italy's Prince Allesandro. "No special parking spaces or tiaras. Since it's only a papal title, it doesn't carry a lot of weight, but his family does have a beautiful castle and palazzo in Italy, so that makes me feel like a princess," she told TV Guide in 2008.
Wilde was married to Ruspoli from 2003 to 2011, which means that she held her title for almost a decade. She never took being an aristocrat seriously — nor did Ruspoli, whose father was Roman bon vivant Dado Ruspoli — and frequently joked about it whenever it was discussed in interviews. "It's kind of hilarious, because my husband and I are so not concerned with it. All it means to us is having an incredible family history," Wilde told Fox News in 2009, after being asked about playing a royal (in "Year One") while also holding an official title in real life. While you would be hard-pressed to find an article about Wilde from the aughts that did not mention her husband's lineage, it's no longer a common topic and many fans do not even know about it.
She got married on a school bus (which is also where her ex-husband lived)
Olivia Wilde is a millennial, so no one would be shocked if she were still single at 40. At the very least, we would expect Wilde to have been in her 20s when she first got married since the average age of marriage for a millennial woman is 28. But Wilde is never one to go the conventional route, and she lives her life with a very different mindset than most people, encouraged by her mom's early note to not "be boring." "It affected every decision," Wilde told Vanity Fair. "Any crossroads I came to where there was one option that was safer than the other, I would take the less safe route. That led to some great things, like taking a chance on being an actor."
Getting married as a teenager is, in modern-day at least, not the safe route — and that is exactly what Wilde did. She wed Italian aristocrat and filmmaker Tao Ruspoli in 2003, when she was only 19 years old. The pair had only known each other for six months before eloping, and they did so in a very surprising way for a royal descendent and his bride. Wilde and Ruspoli chose to say their "I dos" on a bus, where the prince was living at the time, in front of only two witnesses. That initial wedding was followed up by a big ceremony in Virginia, hosted by Wilde's parents, and then a third wedding in Rome at a castle belonging to Ruspoli's family.
She never married Jason Sudeikis despite a seven-year engagement
When Hollywood couples are together for many years, people tend to assume that they're married. But in today's day and age, especially in Los Angeles, that's not a safe assumption. Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis were a huge power couple, but despite popular belief, they were never actually husband and wife. Things got confusing for people in April 2022, when Sudeikis served Wilde with court documents while she was on stage at CinemaCon. Wilde opened the manila envelope on stage — and there is a video of it for posterity — and appeared shocked at the contents. Those who only read the headlines may have assumed the papers were divorce documents when, in actuality, they were files related to the former couple's messy custody battle.
People have good reason for thinking that Wilde and Sudeikis were married, considering the length of their engagement. The couple started their relationship toward the end of 2011 after meeting at a "Saturday Night Live" party six months prior. They got engaged in 2013 and remained that way until their November 2020 split, welcoming two children — Otis Alexander and Daisy Josephine — through the years but never walking down the aisle. Toward the start of their seven-year engagement, Wilde told Allure of their "slowly developing" wedding plan that never materialized. "I trust everyone to not leak any information," she told the magazine. "I just hope no one ends up flying a stupid helicopter over it or anything dumb like that."
She overshared about her sex life with Jason Sudeikis
People love to talk about Olivia Wilde's sex appeal, and folks weren't shy when speculating about her hot romance with Harry Styles. Less attention was paid to the ins and outs of the actor/director's relationship with Jason Sudeikis, but when there was attention paid to their sex life, it was very much because of Wilde's loose lips. Wilde has never been good at holding back or mincing her words, so there have been occasions where she gave a little bit too much information in public settings. The most vivid incident occurred in 2012 concerning an overshare about her sex life, which created an uproar and caused Wilde to turn to other celebrities for help navigating the media backlash.
It was at a 2012 Glamour-sponsored event called "These Girls" that Wilde made her TMI disclosure about the differences in her genitals and sex life after her marriage ended versus after meeting Sudeikis. "I felt like my vagina died. Turned off. Lights out. You can lie to your relatives at Christmas dinner and tell them everything on the homefront is just peachy, but you cannot lie to your vagina," she said (via Vulture). Wilde then noted about her relationship with Sudeikis, "We have sex like Kenyan marathon runners." While her sex comments warranted some attention regardless, it was the insensitive, offensive statement about the Kenyan runners that created the real media firestorm. To deal with the attention, Wilde approached someone who has a lot of experience handling the media — everyone's favorite friend, Jennifer Aniston. Aniston sent an e-mail detailing her experiences and offering advice, per Wilde.
She reportedly lied about when she and Jason Sudeikis ended things
No one can say for certain what goes on in a relationship except for the people involved, but according to multiple media reports, Olivia Wilde was less than truthful when she initially presented her breakup timeline with Jason Sudeikis. People love to harp on Sudeikis for serving Wilde with papers at CinemaCon — even though sources said he had no prior knowledge of when the documents would be delivered — while giving Wilde a pass for seemingly blindsiding her spouse of nearly a decade. The vast majority of media coverage alluded to Sudeikis's timeline of events being the true one, and even the couple's former nanny has come out in support of the "Ted Lasso" star's story.
In September 2022, Wilde told Vanity Fair that she did not cheat on Sudeikis, claiming the relationship ended "long before" she met Harry Styles. This came after Sudeikis gave an interview that established the date of their split as November 2022, so the differing timelines caused a lot of confusion. Then, the couple's nanny did an interview with The Daily Mail that supported Sudeikis's timeline. She said Wilde only ender her relationship after she began filming "Don't Worry Darling" — which she directed and which starred Styles — and that Sudeikis found out about whatever was going on with Styles by way of messages on an Apple watch she left behind. People magazine also reported that Sudeikis was unaware Wilde wanted to end things until October, only two months before Wilde and Styles were photographed holding hands.
She also lied about firing Shia LeBeouf from Don't Worry Darling
Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis's differing stories would be the typical he said/she said situation, had it not been for their nanny's interview and a few unnamed, but seemingly vetted, insider accounts. That alone is not enough to sway things too much, but unlike Sudeikis, Wilde is known to at times stretch the truth. For example, take her beef with Shia LeBeouf, who was originally supposed to star in her film, "Don't Worry Darling." The whole thing went down around the time LeBeouf was exposed as a domestic abuser, so it was easy for people to take Wilde's side. But when LeBeouf showed up with receipts contradicting Wilde's entire story, there was no way to dismiss his text, e-mail, and video evidence.
LeBeouf was cast in Wilde's film in April 2020, and when he withdrew five months later, the party line was that it was due to "scheduling conflicts." When Wilde started promoting the movie a couple of years later, she had a very different story — one that included a "no-a**holes policy" on her set and claims that LeBeouf was fired because he made Pugh uncomfortable with his behavior. LeBeouf fired back with damning evidence that supported his assertion that he quit due to a lack of rehearsal time. He sent all of his documentation to Variety, including a video where Wilde tells the actor she is "not ready to give up on this yet" two days after the e-mail (also sent) in which he quit the project.
She dabbled in competitive eating
Not all of the not-oft-discussed details about Olivia Wilde are dark and controversial. Some of them are just plain, quirky fun. That's the case when it comes to one of Wilde's previous endeavors, which is both totally unexpected and also completely and awesomely cool. In a past life, Wilde entered and won a competitive eating contest — something that kind of opposes the sex symbol role she has so often been reduced to in Hollywood by the media and fans alike. Pretty, young stars often have to play into the image that others project onto them, but Wilde has never played that game.
Still, few people would ever expect someone like Wilde to dabble in a world where people scarf down 10 pounds of corn beef and cabbage in 10 minutes — an actual record held by someone involved in Major League Eating. Thankfully for Wilde, her brief experience as a pro eater involved something far more appetizing than a leafy green and salted brisket. "I have never lost," the star said in a "Live with Regis and Kelly interview" in 2011 (via Just Jared), implying that it was not just a one-time thing. "My best ever was pancakes. It's kind of disgusting but I ate 33 pancakes in 20 minutes with butter and syrup," she admitted. Wilde has also said she only entered the contest because people said a woman wouldn't do it.
Her salad dressing caused quite a stir
The number of stars who have published cookbooks is continuously growing — Chrissy Teigen, Reese Witherspoon, Stanley Tucci, even Snoop Dogg — but the vast majority of celebs who discuss their adventures in the kitchen do so without getting into the nitty gritty. Most of the time, the fact that someone likes to cook or bake is a small piece of a larger interview or profile. However, there are rare instances where the story becomes specifically about, or at least centered around, a particular dish. For Olivia Wilde, it was a salad dressing that got people talking — but not because of the recipe, which was at the time secret. No, the story went viral because it was reported that Wilde's ex risked his life after an incident involving the dressing.
The story was first reported by The Daily Mail, in their interview with Wilde and Jason Sudeikis's former nanny. The nanny detailed how the couple had a huge blowout fight after Wilde made a salad for Harry Styles in their kitchen. Jason told me: 'She made this salad and she made her special dressing and she's leaving with her salad to have dinner with [Harry]'," said the nanny, who had text messages to back up her story. She also claimed that Sudeikis got so worked up that he crawled under Wilde's car to stop her from leaving with the salad. Shortly after the article went up, Wilde shared the "special" recipe on Instagram, which was actually just the salad dressing from Nora Ephron's "Heartburn."
She shaded Taylor Swift's choice in men shortly after breaking up with Swift's ex
Olivia Wilde's many controversies have garnered her tons of press, a lot of it negative, and the list of stars who do not like her is not exactly short. Wilde's image took a huge hit when it was revealed that she and Florence Pugh, the star of her film "Don't Worry Darling," were possibly at odds, with people overwhelmingly taking Pugh's side. It made matters worse that the film spurred several other controversies, none of which made Wilde look particularly good. So, you would think she would have been on her best behavior in 2023, but Wilde couldn't help but run her mouth and, in the process, anger Swifties everywhere.
"I wish Taylor Swift was in love with a climate scientist," said a tweet that Wilde — who herself has never dated a climate scientist or a scientist of any sort — shared on Instagram. The October 2023 post was seemingly a response to the media attention paid to Taylor Swift's budding romance with NFL hunk Travis Kelce, and those in the know were quick to point out the shadiness of the sentiment. Wilde claimed it wasn't meant to be a dig, but given that she dated Swift's ex-boyfriend Harry Styles, she probably should have kept her mouth shut on all things Swift. "It's obviously a comment on how much attention gets paid to stupid things," she said after the backlash, but many felt that her chosen target used to illustrate that point was far from random.
She has a tendency to bash her past work
It's interesting how some celebrities who talk poorly about their past projects are vilified, while others get a total pass for their badmouthing. It doesn't even seem to matter if the critiques are valid or not. Just ask Katherine Heigl, who for years was deemed difficult because she dared to bash her film "Knocked Up" and took a dig at the storylines the writers of "Grey's Anatomy" were giving her in a 2007 interview. Her comment about "Knocked Up" being somewhat sexist was totally accurate, and "Grey's" didn't give her the material to set her up for a nomination that year, but people wanted to hate on Heigl for speaking her truth. Somehow, Olivia Wilde got off far easier when she dissed a bunch of her old movies in a 2022 Interview magazine piece.
That's not to say that Wilde should be vilified, but if one celebrity is going to be punished for their hot takes, every celebrity should be. After all, Wilde was not exactly kind when called her past work "sh*tty. "I've been in some really bad ones, and now I think, 'I did those to learn all the cautionary tales that would help me define myself as a director,'" she said in the interview. Wilde's words may not seem as offensive had she not previously said that directors are solely to blame for a crappy movie — a statement that bit her in the butt when it resurfaced amidst "Don't Worry Darlings" poor reviews.
Her dog was a spokesmodel for Old Navy
There are plenty of strange things we ignore about Olivia Wilde, but the fact that her old dog was a big-time model is perhaps the strangest. And that's saying something when dealing with a star who has been a competitive eater and married into a royal family. It all started in 2006 when Wilde's two-year-old dog Paco was selected from a collection of 120,000 dogs submitted to Old Navy's Canine Casting Call for its 2006 holiday adverts. One might expect the story to be a forgettable one had Wilde been a no-name actor, but by 2006, she was already on the up-and-up. It was the year after her stint on "The O.C." and around the time she appeared in "Alpha Dog," so she was definitely on people's radars. This story and little ole Paco, however, were not.
Old Navy whittled its surprisingly ample list of applicants down to a final six, and the public took it from there. Paco won the popular vote, becoming the brand's newest doggie model and replacing the old one that had been in place for over a decade. Wilde and her then-hubby were paid $7,000 for Paco's work — because who needs a good payday more than a semi-famous actor booking regular work and her prince husband? — and provided a trip to Los Angeles, where they probably already spent most of their time. Paco was truly adorable, though, and modeling runs in the family. Wilde herself modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch back in the day.