Fans of Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis and actress / Booksmart director Olivia Wilde were quite surprised in November of 2020 when it was revealed that the couple, who’d been engaged since 2012, had split up months prior. While their breakup was said to be amicable, it can still be difficult to deal with or talk about one’s ex in the months, or even years, right after such a split. Now, we seem to have yet another sign that Wilde and Sudeikis are cool with their post-romance relationship, as he’s kept his Ted Lasso locker tribute to her going into Season 3.
How Is Jason Sudeikis Paying Tribute To Olivia Wilde In Ted Lasso Season 3?
Pretty much everyone who’s tuned in to the hit Apple TV+ comedy, Ted Lasso, is well aware that the show is much more than your standard workplace sitcom. The series about the titular U.S. football coach (played by Jason Sudeikis) who heads to England to coach a professional soccer team is filled with stories about kindness, people finding ways to redeem themselves, divorce, found family, and several other emotional topics that one might not expect to see in a comedy.
Those stories are one of the things that’s made the series so popular among fans and critics alike, and in a recent 60 Minutes interview, we can see that Sudeikis has kept his Ted Lasso tribute to his ex-fiancée. During the chat, we hear that many of the lockers in the AFC Richmond locker room feature the names of the writers’ friends, family members, and former mentors. When an example of family comes up, the locker featuring the name “Cockburn” is shown, which is Olivia Wilde’s maiden name.
Sudeikis revealed previously, in one of his many award show acceptance speeches, that it was Wilde who encouraged him and Ted Lasso’s other co-creators to consider turning their idea, which had begun as a series of commercials for NBC’s coverage of English Premier League soccer, into a movie or TV show. And, presumably, when they began working on Season 1 in earnest, and had to name those lockers, her contribution to the show was still fresh in their minds.
It can be easy, however, during or in the aftermath of a breakup, to sort of block out the positives of your previous relationship, maybe to the point where you actively don’t want to acknowledge what good the person did bring into your life while you were still together, because of the pain of the separation. Plus, some can also see not thinking about those things as a way to move on.
So, many would likely understand if the “Cockburn” locker had been changed to something else in time for Ted Lasso Season 3 to begin filming, seeing as how it’s now been about two years (if they really did breakup in early 2020) since Sudeikis and Wilde transitioned to simply co-parenting their young kids, Otis and Daisy. But, it’s pretty clear that Jason Sudeikis is still appreciative of both the family bond he has with Olivia Wilde, and her part in helping all of his Ted Lasso success become a reality. Considering how sage he was about their split last summer, though, this makes sense.
We don’t know just yet when Ted Lasso will return to Apple TV+ for Season 3 (or have word yet on whether or not the series will really be done after that), but you can see what to watch in the meantime with the 2022 TV schedule.
