Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis are seeking to dismiss their former nanny’s lawsuit against them.
Ericka Genaro is suing the former couple, alleging they fired her due to issues with her mental health.
In court documents filed in Los Angeles back in February, she said she suffered from “extreme anxiety” and stress following Olivia and Jason’s split in 2020 that ultimately became “debilitating”.
Now, in court documents obtained by Page Six, Olivia and Jason claim Ericka’s wrongful termination lawsuit was improperly filed in California as a civil suit when it should have been filed in New York.
The former couple are hoping to have the lawsuit dismissed entirely so they can settle the matter in a private arbitration.
In a statement, Olivia and Jason said: “It is unfortunate that this private matter continues to play out in the press.”
“Our focus has been and will continue to be to steadfastly protect our family in the face of harassment of any kind. We are confident that the evidence brought forward will affirm our position to summarily dismiss this case and bring our family peace.”
Ericka’s lawsuit, which she filed back in February, claimed that during late-night chats with Jason, she felt she had needed to “ostensibly pick sides” between him and Olivia.
The complaint, obtained by the PA news agency, alleged: “Wilde’s sudden absence from the home had an adverse consequence on its emotional state, including Sudeikis leaning on the presence of (Genaro) for support.”
“Plaintiff became increasingly anxious and stressed with Sudeikis’ tendency to seemingly require Plaintiff 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 Plaintiff 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.”
The filing added that Ericka’s anxiety was made worse by the media coverage of the Olivia and Jason’s split.
Their former nanny later alleged that after informing Jason of the need for a three-day medical leave of absence – recommended to her by a doctor – the Ted Lasso star had “terminated her on the spot”.
The filing continued: “Plaintiff is informed and believes, and thereon alleges, her termination was because of her disability of anxiety/depression, and for seeking the reasonable accommodation of a three day leave of absence for same.”
Ericka has filed a case for wrongful termination on the grounds of discrimination on the basis of disability.
In a joint statement back in October last year, Olivia and Jason told CNN: “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, as well as loved ones, close friends and colleagues, 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.
Olivia and Jason started dating in 2011 and split in late 2020.
The former couple share two children – Otis and Daisy.
