She’s said her piece. Olivia Wilde addressed Florence Pugh feud rumours after reports that she cheated on Jason Sudeikis with Harry Styles.
Wilde and Styles began dating publicly in January 2021 after meeting on the set of Don’t Worry Darling, which Wilde directed and Styles starred in, in 2020. The relationship began two months after news broke that Wilde and Sudeiks, who began dating in 2011 and have two children, Otis, 8, and Daisy, 5, had split after ten years of marriage. In July 2022, a source told Page Six that Pugh, who co-stars with Styles in Don’t Worry Darling, was “uncomfortable” with how Wilde and Styles met. According to the source, Wilde was “still with” Sudeikis when she first “hooked up” with Styles. “I can tell you for a fact that Flo seeing Olivia and Harry all over each other on set did not sit well with her because Olivia was still with Jason when she first hooked up with Harry,” the insider revealed. “Jason and the kids visited Olivia on set a few times at the beginning, so I think this made people feel a little uncomfortable.”
Fans noticed Pugh’s lack of social media posts about Don’t Worry Darling, prompting the report. “The way Florence Pugh has yet to post about don’t worry darling even though there are two trailers out for it and yet she’ll post about every single other project that she’s doing right now like what did Olivia Wilde do????” a Twitter user tweeted in July 2022, when Pugh, unlike Wilde and the rest of the cast, did not share the trailer for the movie. Another source told Page Six at the time that Pugh’s lack of Don’t Worry Darling posts was due to a scheduling conflict with her upcoming 2023 film, Oppenheimer, and not a dig at Wilde. “I heard she was already scheduled to post [about ‘Oppenheimer’] that day for some specific reason, it had nothing to do with Olivia,” the insider explained.
Wilde responded to rumours of a feud between her and Pugh in an interview with Variety in August 2022, as well as reports that Styles was paid three times more than Pugh for Don’t Worry Darling. “There has been a lot out there that I largely ignore,” she said. “However, the absurdity of invented clickbait and the subsequent reaction to a nonexistent pay disparity between our lead and supporting actors irritated me.” I’m a woman who has worked in this industry for over 20 years, and it’s something I’ve fought for myself and others, particularly as a director. Those assertions are completely untrue.”
In the same interview, Wilde revealed that she was going to play the lead character, Alice, in the film but changed her mind after seeing Pugh’s performance in 2019’s Midsommar. “She had blown the fuck out of me,” Wilde admitted. “I liked the movie, but I really liked her.” ‘Well, she’s extraordinary,’ I thought. She is without a doubt the most exciting young actress working today.” “There was something about the youthfulness, the innocence, that really made sense for the story,” she continued. If I were Alice, I’d be thinking, ‘Well, I’m going to be with a Jack my age or older, and now we’re in a different age bracket.'”
Following the publication of Page Six’s report, sources close to Wilde and Styles denied that they were anything but professional on the set of Don’t Worry Darling. “Both Olivia and Harry were extremely professional. “We were all surprised to learn they were dating and didn’t even realise they were a couple until the news became public,” one source said. Another source confirmed that the crew and cast were not aware of Wilde and Styles’ relationship. “We were filming the movie during the peak of COVID. Everyone had a task to complete, and we were all focused on it. “I didn’t see Harry and Olivia all over each other!” said the insider.
