The couple’s break-up has been acrimonious
(Picture: Getty Images for iHeartMedia)Actors Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde are being sued by their former nanny who claims she was sacked “on the spot” due to issues with her mental health.
Ericka Genaro alleges she suffered from “extreme anxiety” after becoming trapped in the middle of the couple’s relationship breakdown in 2020. She says Ted Lasso star Sudeikis’ insistence on late-night chats left her feeling like she had to “pick sides”.
Ms Genaro has now filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles seeking damages, back-pay, and legal fees. According to court documents, Ms Genaro — the live-in nanny for the former couple’s two children — says her anxiety “boiled up” as Sudeikis and Wilde’s relationship disintegrated, all in the media spotlight. “Wilde’s sudden absence from the home had an adverse consequence on its emotional state, including Sudeikis leaning on the presence of [her] for support,” Ms Genaro’s lawyers set out.
“[She] became increasingly anxious and stressed with Sudeikis’ tendency to seemingly require [her] to stay up at night after the kids were put to bed to talk, whereas that dynamic did not occur before Wilde’s absence.
“The subject matter of these late-night conversations with Sudeikis naturally evolved to speaking about Wilde which [Ms Genaro] felt compelled to engage in despite creating extreme anxiety to her as she ostensibly felt she had to ‘pick sides’ between the parents of the children she was ostensibly the primary caretaker.”
Ms Genaro says she spoke to Wilde about the situation and felt a “genuine sense of relief and comradery” with the actress who she saw as “sympathetic”.
But she claims she was “stunned” when, in December 2020, Sudeikis revealed that Wilde had told him about the entire conversation. “Her heart sank because of its significance — there was no peace when confiding in Wilde”, Ms Genaro’s lawsuit claims.
The live-in nanny says she told Sudeikis in February 2021 that she needed to take a three-day absence on the advice of her doctor, but claims the Horrible Bosses star then “terminated her on the spot”.
Wilde and Sudeikis, who are the parents of son Otis and daughter Daisy, were a couple from 2011 until late 2020.
Following the split, Wilde went on to date Harry Styles — a relationship which Ms Genaro claims was a preoccupation of Sudeikis.
Last year, Wilde was served with custody papers while on stage promoting her film Don’t Worry Darling, in an incident she felt was orchestrated by Sudeikis to cause maximum embarrassment.
Representatives for Sudeikis and Wilde have been contacted for comment on the lawsuit.
When the nanny first spoke out publicly about her claims, representatives for Sudeikis and Wilde issued a joint statement, saying: “As parents, it is incredibly upsetting to learn that a former nanny of our two young children would choose to make such false and scurrilous accusations about us publicly.
“Her now 18-month long campaign of harassing us... has reached its unfortunate apex. We will continue to focus on raising and protecting our children with the sincere hope that she will now choose to leave our family alone.”
