Rebel Wilson has spoken out after an Australian newspaper admitted it tried to get her to comment on her new relationship before she had publicly come out.
Last week, the Hollywood star announced she was in a same-sex relationship with fashion designer Ramona Agruma, writing on Instagram: “I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince … but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess.”
In a subsequent piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, journalist Andrew Hornery revealed the paper had known about Rebel’s new relationship and had gone to her representatives for comment with what they described as “abundance of caution and respect”, and gave her two days to respond “before publishing a single word”.
Rebel then announced the relationship on her Instagram page, with the journalist bemoaning the actor’s decision to “ignore our discreet, genuine and honest queries”, calling it “underwhelming”.
Hornery then wrote: “This is understood to be Wilson’s first same-sex relationship, at age 42 and in an era when same-sex marriage is legal in many parts of the world and – thanks to decades of battling for equality – sexual orientation is no longer something to be hidden, even in Hollywood.
“Up to now, Wilson had identified publicly as a heterosexual woman. It is unlikely she would have experienced the sort of discrimination let alone homophobia – subconscious or overt – that sadly still affects so many gay, lesbian and non-hetero people.”
The publication subsequently came in for swathes of criticism on social media over its conduct and the position it had put Rebel in, and Hornery’s subsequent article.
Rebel has since now addressed the situation as she replied to a tweet deriding the Sydney Morning Herald’s conduct, calling the position she was put in “very hard”.
“Thanks for your comments,” she tweeted on Sunday. “It was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace.”
Her tweet came as the Sydney Morning Herald editor issued a statement after “reading feedback closely” to “offer the Herald’s view on this issue”.
Bevan Shields wrote: “Our weekly Private Sydney celebrity column last week asked Wilson if she wished to comment about her new partner. We would have asked the same questions had Wilson’s new partner been a man. To say that the Herald ‘outed’ Wilson is wrong.
“Like other mastheads do every day, we simply asked questions and as standard practice included a deadline for a response. I had made no decision about whether or what to publish, and the Herald’s decision about what to do would have been informed by any response Wilson supplied.
“Wilson made the decision to publicly disclose her new partner - who had been a feature of her social media accounts for months.
“Private Sydney is a column in which the writer’s interaction with his subjects is often part of the story. Saturday’s piece followed that theme in giving readers insights into our interaction with Wilson and her PR team. This was not a standard news story.”
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