﻿Olivia Wilde has had some pretty high-profile relationships! But before she got there, the
actress was a teeager who eloped with an Italian filmmaker and prince that lived on a school
bus! The former royal couple had a wholesome marriage, but sadly, they went their separate
ways. What was the reason behind their split? Olivia Wilde met Tao Ruspoli in 2003. They
were introduced through the beauty’s family friend. The young woman admitted feeling a bit
turned off by LA guys. "They spend way more time looking in the mirror than I ever do," she said.
That’s when her friend told her about this filmmaker who lived on a school bus!
Initially, she was hesitant to meet the Italian. "He wanted to introduce me to this Italian guy who
made films and lived on a school bus,” Olivia recalled, adding, “I said, 'Whoa! I don't
want to meet a dude who lives on a bus!’" It turned out that Tao is a prince whose
family owns a palazzo in Rome and a castle in Vignanello. He's a filmmaker and documentarian,
and the bus is a mobile studio for a cinema collective he founded.
At this point, Wilde was still on her way to becoming an actress. Even though she wasn’t
keen on meeting a man who lived on an old school bus, the starlet and filmmaker hit it
off pretty quickly. Their differences in lineage and real estate preference aside, the two shared
similar views on media and entertainment. “We’re from completely different worlds,
but we have the same mission: to bring film and art together with some sort of
political activism,” the actress explained. The two had a whirlwind romance! They got
engaged at the Burning Man festival that year, and just six months after meeting, Tao and Olivia
eloped on the same bus that made her wary in the first place! The actress was 19 years
old at the time, while her then-husband was 27. The former lovers had a formal wedding in Virginia
a little later. She explained that the decision to elope on the bus came from a yearning to share a
special moment between them. The bus was the only place the former couple could be alone.
After the actress entered the world of Hollywood, she was always asked about what it was like being
married to European royalty. Despite his royal title, Olivia had to tell interviewers
that her husband was not the conventional prince that people may have envisioned.
"Everyone expects him to pick me up in a limo or a yacht. Then Tao rolls up in this old Thunderbird,
wearing flip-flops, his hair all crazy. People are like, 'He's a prince?'" the actress joked.
And no, marrying a prince didn’t grant Wilde access to the crown jewels. “No
special parking spaces or tiaras,” she told TV Guide magazine. Since it's only a papal title,
their royal status doesn't carry a lot of weight, “But his family does have a beautiful
castle and palazzo in Italy, so that makes me feel like a princess,” the actress added.
The article also claimed that the former couple certainly didn’t live like nobility.
Their Bohemian Venice Beach loft was crammed with oversize abstract art, ethnic furniture,
and cookbooks scarred with food stains. They were the kind of boho aesthetic, beach bum
couple that Pinterest had us obsessing over! Back in the 2000s, it was still a heavily
influenced idea that women needed to be skinny to be attractive. It’s no secret that Hollywood has
a dark history of making women feel inadequate in their bodies — the Italian was adamant about
making his former partner learn to love herself. "I don't own a scale, and Tao banned the word fat
from our house," she said, adding, "If we eat too much, we say, 'I feel clogged up.'" How sweet!
In 2007, the former lovebirds collaborated on a film called ‘Fix.’ When the project hit theaters
two years later, Olivia spoke about working with her then-husband in the most loving terms.
“No one understands me better than Tao, and therefore I felt completely
liberated under his direction,” the actress said. Sadly, in 2011, Olivia filed for divorce, citing
the very familiar “irreconcilable differences.” Before the official end of their marriage,
the two had separated. Fans began wondering what went wrong with this adorable couple.
Wilde later explained that the decision to split was because she was “a case of
arrested development,” from spending her 20s with someone who loved to care for her as much
as her then-husband did. The actress felt it was healthy for her to spend time alone. “You need
to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person,” the actress explained.
Although the filmmaker did not speak about the divorce then,
he released a documentary titled ‘Monogamish’ in 2014. In the film, Tao explained his state
of mind during that time. Reading a letter, he said, "I'm in a state of total crisis. My
wife has just left me after nearly ten years together, and my whole world has crumbled."
The Italian wasn’t the only one dealing with heartache. From Olivia’s accounts, it's clear
there’s no bad blood between the exes, and the divorce came from a place of personal growth
and development. Letting go of someone she loved for all those years was not easy for the actress.
“You don't want to end a marriage, you just know that something's off so you
try to change everything else," she said. Wilde also admitted that divorce had made
her feel like “such a failure.” According to reports, the actress
had discussed another reason her relationship had ended: the death of her vagina. “Lights
out … And you can lie to your relatives at Christmas dinner and tell them everything
on the home front is just peachy. But you cannot lie to your vagina,” she said on stage. Awkward…
When said quotes began to circulate, Wilde clarified the situation on Twitter. She
said the 'These Girls’ monologues were not meant for publication and were given without
context. They were actually “a celebration of LOVE, girls, and honesty,” she wrote.
Even though the sun set on Olivia Wilde and Tao Ruspoli’s glorious marriage,
it was a good thing. The split helped both of them improve at expressing themselves in their work and
helped them grow into who they are today. Thank you for taking the time to watch our
video! We’d love it if you could share our channel with your loved ones! Don’t forget
to subscribe and click that notification bell for more celebrity stories. Be well and be kind.