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More than four years after the public’s fixation on her relationship with Harry Styles threw her life into chaos, Olivia Wilde is opening up about what that time was really like behind the scenes.
Appearing on the Wednesday (June 17) episode of Call Her Daddy, the actress and filmmaker addressed the backlash she faced for dating the British singer after he was cast in Don’t Worry Darling (2022), which she directed and played a supporting role in. “I’ve never felt more disconnected from the person that people were talking about,” she began of certain tabloids discussing her personal life for months on end. “I was like, ‘Who are they talking about? Who is that girl?'”
Wilde went on to address some of the specific aspects of her romance with Styles that people tore her apart for, from her being 10 years older than the pop star to the perception that she was spending time away from her children to be with him, when in reality, her custody arrangement with ex-husband Jason Sudeikis made it so that she couldn’t be with her kids half the time anyway. “It was also very strange to see complete fiction traded as fact,” she told host Alex Cooper. “My private life was very far from it and very actually wholesome and sweet.”
“I don’t know how much I understand it yet,” she continued. “People were f–king pissed. It also had a lot to do with the parasocial relationship people have with [Styles]. He carries it with grace. I think that is an enormous responsibility that all those stars have to carry.”
“It’s almost like [our] happiness made them mad,” she added. “Like, I would go to his shows and dance, and people were like, ‘Oh, how could she?'”
Wilde and Styles dated for about two years before calling it quits in late 2022, a couple months after Don’t Worry Darling hit theaters. Aside from a few sparse paparazzi photos of them holding hands — and Wilde’s attendance at some of Styles’ Love on Tour shows — the pair kept their relationship largely private.
They did, however, both address the “cruelty” Wilde faced in Styles’ 2022 Rolling Stone cover story, with the Grammy winner saying then, “It’s obviously a difficult feeling to feel like being close to me means you’re at the ransom of a corner of Twitter or something.”
“What I don’t understand about the cruelty you’re referencing is that that kind of toxic negativity is the antithesis of Harry, and everything he puts out there,” Wilde told the publication at that time. “I don’t personally believe the hateful energy defines his fan base at all.”
Years later, the Booksmart director still only has kind things to say about her ex, who is now reportedly engaged to Zoe Kravitz. “We had the loveliest relationship — so, so sweet and so beautiful and really actually very domestic and kind and lovely,” she reflected on the podcast. “We existed in this little bubble, and the judgment never really got into that bubble, which was a miracle.”
Since the Don’t Worry Darling days, Styles has released a fourth album: Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in March. He’s currently on tour to support the project. Wilde has also been hard at work on her craft, directing and costarring in The Invite, which hits theaters on June 26.
Watch her full conversation with Cooper on Call Her Daddy above.
