Wilde was born in New York City and grew up in the Georgetown neighborhood of

Washington, DC.[4][5] Her mother, Leslie Cockburn (ne Leslie Corkill Redlich),[5] is
an American-born 60 Minutes producer and journalist. Her father, Andrew Cockburn,
[5] is also a journalist. He was born in London, to English parents, and was raised in
Ireland. Wilde's uncles, Alexander and Patrick Cockburn, also worked as journalists.
Her older sister, Chloe Cockburn,[5] is a civil rights attorney in New York. Her aunt,
Sarah Caudwell, was a writer; her half-cousin, Stephanie Flanders, is a journalist;
and her paternal grandfather, Claud Cockburn, was a novelist and journalist.

Wilde's paternal Scottish ancestors were upper-class and lived in several places at
the height of the British Empire, including Peking (where her paternal grandfather
was born), Kolkata, Mumbai, Cairo, and Tasmania; one of her paternal great-greatgrandfathers, Henry Arthur Blake, was Governor of Hong Kong.[6] Her other paternal
ancestors include abolitionist and Anglican minister James Ramsay; politician
George Arbuthnot; lawyer, judge, and literary figure Henry Cockburn, Lord
Cockburn; Lord Provost of Edinburgh Sir William Arbuthnot; and Sir Thomas
Osborne.[6][7] Her ancestry includes English, German, Irish, Manx, and Scottish; she
is also of 1/64th Sephardi Jewish descent through Ralph Bernal (17831854), a
British Whig politician and actor.[8][9]

Wilde has said that as a result of her parents' occupations, she has a "strong
journalistic streak" and is "really critical and analytical".[3] Both her parents were
prominent in the Washington, D.C. social scene, hosting dinner parties. Her mother
once recounted a story of a four-year-old Wilde eavesdropping one night on a
conversation between diplomat Richard Holbrooke and singer Mick Jagger, until
Jagger noticed her and shooed her to bed.[10] She had writer Christopher Hitchens
as a babysitter.[5] She wanted to become an actress since age two.[3] For a short
time, Wilde's family had a house in Guilford, Vermont. She attended Georgetown
Day School in Washington, D.C., as well as Phillips Academy in Andover,
Massachusetts, graduating in 2002. Wilde was accepted to Bard College but
deferred her enrollment three times in order to pursue acting.[11] She then studied
acting at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin.[3]