Rebel Wilson has broken her silence on an allegation regarding a newspaper attempting to 'out' her before she went public with her new relationship on social media in her own time.
The 42-year-old actress and comedian 'came out' to her followers via an Instagram post last Friday (June 10), sharing a photo of herself and partner Ramona Agruma with her 11.1m followers.
The Mirror reports that the Pitch Perfect star said: "I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess." She also included the hashtag #loveislove.
Read more: Rebel Wilson comes out as she reveals relationship with 'Disney Princess' girlfriend
It however has since been revealed that the post came after Wilson had been approached by a newspaper in Australia, who were considering running a story about the couple. The Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Hornery has admitted that he gave Wilson less than two days to issue a response - or such a story was potentially going to run.
The newspaper has received a backlash for what's been described by critics as an attempt to "out" Wilson, with people sharing their thoughts on Twitter and other platforms.
This included journalist Kate Doak who tweeted: "Apparently it wasn't [Wilson's] choice to come out. The @smh/@theage have admitted to giving her a heads up 2 days in advance that they were going to "out" her. What's worse, openly gay men at the Sydney Morning Herald were involved in this."
This prompted a response from Wilson who tweeted yesterday: "Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace."
An opinion piece - which provided background leading to Rebel's 'coming out' post - has since been removed from the Sydney Morning Herald, though columnist Hornery wrote another piece addressing the backlash from readers. The columnist said he had 'learnt some new and difficult lessons' in the wake of the backlash, saying he 'genuinely regrets' that Wilson has found the experience difficult.
Hornery said the couple had been photographed together on several occasions - including at an LGBTQ+ event - so he believed Wilson would possibly be open to discussing it. He added: "But we mishandled steps in our approach."
Hornery revealed that he had approached Wilson's representatives via email last Thursday morning, giving them a deadline of the following afternoon to respond. He said that he didn't receive a reply from her representatives, with Rebel revealing the relationship herself in the post on social media on that Friday morning.
He explained: "My email was never intended to be a threat but to make it clear I was sufficiently confident with my information and to open a conversation."
He added: "It's not the Herald's business to 'out' people and that's not what we set out to do. But I understand why my email has been seen as a threat. The framing of it was a mistake."
The newspaper's editor Bevan Shields also has addressed the controversy in an article on its website, in which he has denied that the outlet had "outed" Wilson. He said: "We would have asked the same questions had Wilson’s new partner been a man. To say that the Herald 'outed' Wilson is wrong."
Shields said he'd 'made no decision about whether or what to publish', adding that the newspaper's decision would have been informed by any response supplied by Wilson.
He said: "Wilson made the decision to publicly disclose her new partner, who had been a feature of her social media accounts for months. [...] We wish Wilson and Agruma well."
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