Ted Lasso’s Keeley Hazell Claims Ex Jason Sudeikis Had ‘Written’ Keeley for Her

Keeley Hazell nearly scored quite the dream role on Ted Lasso — a character inspired by herself.

However, the 38-year-old actress noted in her new memoir, Everyone’s Seen My Tits, that things didn’t go quite as planned.

Hazell shared in her book, per Us Weekly, that Jason Sudeikis — with whom she was previously romantically linked — met up with her to “discuss the part he had written for me” and the idea he had for a new “football show set in England” which would ultimately become Ted Lasso.

“[Sudeikis] was going to play the lead, Ted, a cheery and optimistic American football coach who’d come to coach a British football (soccer) team, which, if you haven’t figured out, is an entirely different sport,” she recalled in her book.

“The show hadn’t been picked up at this point, meaning, it was just a script waiting to be sold,” she added. “But the idea of me being a lead in a TV show was enough to make me wet my pants with excitement.”

She noted that the Horrible Bosses star, 49, chatted with her about the role of a girl named “Keeley” — who shared her name — that he was writing for the show.

The actress said in her memoir that she auditioned multiple times for the role, and “according to J, I was at the top of the list, but casting wanted to see another scene.”

“In the third and final round, J read with me,” she added.

However, she claimed Sudeikis eventually broke the news that she would be “offered another part” in the Apple TV+ series. The role of Keeley ultimately went to Juno Temple, who played her for the rest of the show’s run after it premiered in 2020.

“I felt like I’d been punched in the chest,” Hazell wrote in her book. “Once I didn’t get cast as Keeley, I decided that acting could go f— itself.” 

PEOPLE has reached out to Sudekis’ rep for comment.

Hazell said that after the failed audition, she worked as a producer on Love Island for a bit before taking the role of Bex in Ted Lasso. The character was more of a minor role but she appeared in a handful of episodes. 

“As for me? The only change I noticed was when I went to order some food and gave my name for the order and the server said, ‘Oh, Keeley, like the character from Ted Lasso!’” she recalled. “He mistook my look of horror for confusion and then asked if I’d seen the show.”

“That’s the other thing. While I was just someone who was ‘sort of famous for being almost famous,’ as Ted Lasso’s Keeley Jones liked to point out,” she added.

While The Royals star praised the character for defying “the stereotype—proving that women can be multifaceted,” she also noted that there were quite a few differences between her and her Ted Lasso counterpart. 

Hazell noted in her memoir that she was someone “who has stumbled and struggled and survived,” adding, “I get to play the greatest role of my lifetime — the Real Keeley, and here she f—— is.”

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Everyone’s Seen My Tits is now available to purchase.