Jason Sudeikis reflects on breakup with Olivia Wilde: ‘I’ll have a better understanding of why in a year’

Sudeikis and Wilde were engaged for more than seven years and share two children together

Jason Sudeikis opens up about separation from Olivia Wilde (Getty Images for IFP)

Jason Sudeikis has opened up about his breakup from ex-fiancée Olivia Wilde, revealing that he is not entirely sure about the reasons behind the separation.

The Ted Lasso  who shares two children with Wilde, 37, reflected on the end of the more than seven year relationship during an interview with GQ for the magazine’s August cover, where he confirmed that they split in November 2020.

“I’ll have a better understanding of why in a year,” he said, “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.”

Sudeikis’ comments come amid rumours that Wilde has since begun dating Harry Styles, after the pair were first spotted holding hands in January 2021.

However, according to the 45-year-old, despite hoping for more clarity in regards to the end of his relationship, he is also using the opportunity as a learning experience.

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

The actor also acknowledged that the difficult year ultimately made him stronger, revealing that he thought it was “really neat” and that “if you have the opportunity to hit a rock bottom, however you define that, you can become 412 bones or you can land like an Avenger”.

According to Sudeikis, he “personally chose” to land like an Avenger, before adding that he knows that it “doesn’t mean when you blast back up you’re not going to run into a bunch of s**t and have to, you know, fight things to get back to the heights that you were at,” but that he’d “take that over 412 bones anytime”.

“But there is power in creating 412 bones! Because we all know that a bone, up to a certain age, when it heals, it heals stronger,” he continued, adding: “So, I mean, it’s not to knock anybody that doesn’t land like an Avenger. Because there’s strength in that too.”

During the interview, Sudeikis also denied that his own recent experience influenced the one played out by his TV character Ted Lasso during season one of the hit Apple TV+ show, which sees the soccer coach’s own marriage ending in divorce, as the show had already been written and aired.

Reflecting on the similarities between his character’s love life and his own, the actor said: “And yet one has nothing to do with the other. That’s the crazy thing. Everything that happened in season one was based on everything that happened prior to season one. Like, a lot of it three years prior. You know what I mean? The story’s bigger than that, I hope.

“And anything I’ve gone through, other people have gone through. That’s one of the nice things, right? So it’s humbling in that way.”

Sudeikis and Wilde, who share daughter Daisy, four, and son Otis, seven, began dating in November 2011, before getting engaged in 2012.

Ted Lasso season two will air on Apple TV+ on 23 July.