Still close to him. Jason Sudeikis revealed that his nod to Olivia Wilde on his hit series Ted Lasso will continue to be on the show after their split.
The actor, 46, showed Norah O’Donnell around the Apple TV+ show’s locker room as the cast prepared to shoot season 3. “He pointed out on the set Ted Lasso’s writers named members of the [AFC Richmond] team after friends, family members and former mentors,” the journalist, 48, said during the Sunday, March 13, episode of 60 Minutes.
While O’Donnell did not mention Wilde, 38, specifically, fans later noticed that one of the lockers features the last name Cockburn, which is the actress’ real surname. The locker came across the screen when the correspondent noted that some of the fictional soccer team’s members were named after the writers’ family members.
Sudeikis not only stars on Ted Lasso as the titular AFC Richmond coach, but he also is a co-creator of the beloved comedy. He credited Wilde in July 2021 with encouraging him to pursue the idea back in 2015.
“It was there, the night at dinner, when Olivia was like, ‘You should do it as a show,’” he told GQ, adding that he workshopped the pitch with her at the time.
Sudeikis previously gave Wilde — with whom he shares son Otis, 7, and daughter Daisy, 5 — a shout-out during his March 2021 Critics’ Choice Awards acceptance speech after Ted Lasso won Best Comedy Series.
“I want to thank their mom, Otis and Daisy’s mom, Olivia, who had the initial idea to do this as a TV show,” he said. “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.”
Wilde and Sudeikis began dating in November 2011 and got engaged in January 2013. Us Weekly confirmed in November 2020 that the pair had split.
The Booksmart director was later linked to boyfriend Harry Styles in January 2021, while Us confirmed in June 2021 that the Saturday Night Live alum is dating his Ted Lasso costar Keeley Hazell.
One month later, Sudeikis addressed his split from Wilde for the first time. “I’ll have a better understanding of why [it happened] in a year,” he told GQ. “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.”
The Emmy winner also shared how he strived to look for the positive amid his hardships. “I think 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,” he explained. “I personally have chosen to land like an Avenger. 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 I’d take that over 412 bones anytime.”
