Jason Sudeikis Paid A Subtle Tribute To His Ex Olivia Wilde On Ted Lasso

Jason Sudeikis' AppleTV+ series "Ted Lasso" has made huge waves during its two seasons on the air. Sudeikis stars in the titular role as the American football coach-turned-British football coach of the fictional soccer team AFC Richmond. The show has earned critical acclaim and has received 20 Emmy nominations, per the Television Academy. Of course, the success of "Ted Lasso" has been several years in the making. Sudeikis first brought the character of Ted Lasso to the public back in 2013 for an NBC Sports short film.

But it was actually his longtime girlfriend Olivia Wilde's idea to develop the character into a full television program, per Sudeikis' interview with GQ. Sudeikis and Wilde began dating back in 2011, he proposed to her in 2013, and they had two children together over the course of their relationship. Unfortunately, however, Wilde and Sudeikis broke off their engagement at the end of 2020. But after such a long, intimate relationship, is it any surprise that Sudeikis subtly inserted Wilde into his hit show?

Since "Ted Lasso" revolves around a British soccer team, there are several scenes that take place in the team's locker room. And in preparation for the release of "Ted Lasso" Season 3, Jason Sudeikis took the crew of "60 Minutes" on a tour of the iconic men's locker room. Journalist Norah O'Donnell found out that the show's writers "named members of the [AFC Richmond] team after friends, family members and former mentors."

The segment showed that there is one jersey displayed on the walls of the locker room with the name "Cockburn." And we know that Olivia Wilde's real name is actually Olivia Jane Cockburn. (Sudeikis doesn't go by his real name either; his full name is Daniel Jason Sudeikis.) Since Wilde and Sudeikis' lives were intertwined for so long, it makes sense that little references to Wilde would make their way into Sudeikis' work. After all, as Us Weekly noted, Sudeikis thanked Wilde in his 2021 Critics' Choice Award acceptance speech when "Ted Lasso" won Best Comedy Series. "She was like, 'You and Bill [Lawrence] and Joe [Kelly] love doing that so much you should do it as a TV show.' I was like, 'No.' She was right." Right, indeed.