Olivia Wilde got candid about her nearly two-year relationship with Harry Styles on “Call Her Daddy,” saying it upset people in ways she still doesn’t fully understand—framing the backlash as rooted in parasocial expectations and the scrutiny women face.
Olivia Wilde didn’t dodge the uncomfortable part of her romance with Harry Styles—she leaned into it.
On Wednesday’s episode of “Call Her Daddy. ” the 42-year-old actress looked back on her relationship with the former One Direction member. which lasted nearly two years and began while they were working together on “Don’t Worry Darling” in 2021. Their split. she said. came to an abrupt end as schedules got in the way—Harry’s career on one side. and Wilde’s co-parenting of her kids with Jason Sudeikis on the other.
But what still sticks with Wilde isn’t just the timing. It’s how much her relationship seemed to bother strangers.
“It really did upset people. It was crazy. I don’t know how much I understand it yet,” she told host Alex Cooper.
She then traced what she sees as a longer-running double standard—how women get policed for dating high-profile men. “I know that it has existed for a long time in our society. like. I understand it had very little to do with me. It is something that we have done to women for a long time. Why is it?. I don’t know. People were f**king pissed.”.
Wilde pointed to the fan energy that grows around celebrities, describing it as a kind of parasocial pressure. “[It] is a burden that is very weighty and not something I envy. and he carries it with grace.” She continued. “I think that is an enormous responsibility that all those stars have to carry. and it’s f**king impossible.”.
In her most intimate moment, Wilde emphasized how gentle and “domestic” their time together had felt—despite the outside noise. “I don’t know. it’s wild. because we had the loveliest relationship. like. so sweet and so beautiful and. like. really actually very domestic and kind and lovely.” She said she believes they managed to stay largely inside their own orbit: “I think that we existed in this little bubble and the judgment never really got into that bubble. which was a miracle [and] a real testament to us making that happen.”.
Then she landed on the line that captured her frustration with the backlash. “I think that people were mad. It’s almost like the happiness made them mad.”
Her comments also touched the way motherhood shaped how fans seemed to read her presence—especially when she showed up at Harry’s concerts and had a good time. Wilde described a strict cultural script she says gets applied to mothers in public: “In this country. motherhood means. ‘No more sexual being for you. young lady. That part of you is over now.’” She added that the worldview can feel puritanical and punitive: “There is this puritanical basis to that which is like. ‘You are no longer capable of desire. you don’t deserve it. You have served your purpose and now if I see you without your baby and you are enjoying yourself as an individual woman. I see that as a betrayal of this covenant.’”.
Wilde’s take is threaded with a single through-line: the love she describes in private kept colliding with judgment in public—and she’s still trying to understand why people felt entitled to be angry.
She appeared to speak at the 1:32:28 mark of the episode, where fans can hear the full exchange via the embedded video link shared alongside the segment.
Olivia Wilde Harry Styles Call Her Daddy Alex Cooper Don’t Worry Darling Jason Sudeikis One Direction relationship backlash parasocial relationships motherhood scrutiny