The Sydney Morning Herald has removed a column about Australian actor Rebel Wilson’s new relationship and columnist Andrew Hornery has apologised, admitting he made mistakes in his approach to the reporting.
After complaining on Saturday about being “gazumped” by Wilson revealing Ramona Agruma was her new partner, Hornery wrote a new column on Monday apologising for his reaction and saying he would take a different approach in future. Saturday’s column has been removed and replaced with the new one.
The Herald made mistakes over Rebel Wilson, and will learn from them. Saturday’s piece has been retracted and Andrew Hornery goes into detail here about what we didn’t get right https://t.co/jrnBpbJ4ne
— Bevan Shields (@BevanShields) June 13, 2022
An email he wrote giving Wilson a two-day deadline to respond to his plans to write about the relationship was not meant to be a threat, he wrote, but he could now see why it was seen as one.
Monday’s apology column followed a public backlash to the SMH over its approach to the story.
The Hollywood star revealed on Friday she was in a relationship with US fashion designer Agruma, which prompted an outpouring of well wishes. But controversy erupted after the Herald reported on Saturday that it had contacted her on Thursday, wanting to do the story.
In a note to readers on Monday, the Herald’s editor, Bevan Shields, said the paper did not out Wilson, but “simply asked questions and as standard practice included a deadline for a response”. The ABC radio host Rafael Epstein called that “disingenuous”.
“oh we just ask the questions..”
— Raf Epstein (@Raf_Epstein) June 12, 2022
What exactly do you think she would have thought when you asked the questions?
Disingenuous
Low rent behaviour
How would these journalists and editors feel if these questions were asked about their private life? pic.twitter.com/9MivpB1E1L
LGBTIQ+ Health Australia’s chief executive officer, Nicky Bath, said Wilson was put in “an appalling situation” when the Herald contacted her about her new relationship.
Bath said there was a process people went through to reveal their sexuality and it was an intensely personal and vulnerable time.
“They are personal decisions,” she said. “Who you disclose to first, how you do that, and when you do that.
“When people do come out, the important issue is that they have made the decision to do so, and have the right support around them to go public on an important part of their life.
“To have pressure put on you to come out is really unhelpful, and will impact on [people’s] mental health.”
On Friday morning, Wilson had posted on Instagram, with the hashtag #loveislove, that she thought she was “searching for a Disney Prince”.
“But maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,” she wrote.
On Saturday, Hornery wrote that the paper had emailed Wilson’s representatives on Thursday morning, “giving her two days to comment on her new relationship with LA leisure wear designer Ramona Agruma”.
“Big mistake,” Hornery wrote. “Wilson opted to gazump the story.”
He wrote that “who anyone dates is their business”, but that Wilson “happily fed such prurient interest when she had a hunky boyfriend on her arm”. Wilson would be unlikely to have experienced homophobia, he wrote, and “sexual orientation is no longer something to be hidden”.
On Sunday, Wilson said on Twitter it was a “very hard situation” that she was trying to handle with grace.
Reading the news about @RebelWilson and her horrible dealings with an Australian paper reminds me exactly of the situation with our Steo and the sun newspaper in the UK. How can this be possible today ? Rebel I hope you are ok and you have the strength and love to rise above. X
— Ronan Keating (@ronanofficial) June 11, 2022
In his new column on Monday, Hornery wrote that as a gay man, he was aware of the pain of discrimination, and that he regretted that “Rebel has found this hard”.
He thought Wilson would be happy to discuss her new love, but “we mishandled steps in our approach”, he wrote.
When he emailed Wilson’s representatives last week, he said he had “enough detail to publish the story”.
“However, in the interests of transparency and fairness, before publishing I am reaching out to Rebel to see if she will engage in what I believe is a happy and unexpected news story for her, especially given the recent Pride celebrations,” he wrote. “My deadline is Friday, 1pm Sydney time.”
That framing was a mistake, Hornery wrote on Monday. “The Herald and I will approach things differently from now on to make sure we always take into consideration the extra layer of complexities people face when it comes to their sexuality.”
He also conceded the tone of his Saturday column was “off”.
“I got it wrong,” he said.
Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace 💗
— Rebel Wilson (@RebelWilson) June 12, 2022
Shields wrote that the paper would have asked the same question had Wilson’s new partner been a man. Shields said he had not made a decision about whether or what he would publish, but that any decision would have been informed by any response from Wilson.
“This was not a standard news story,” he wrote. “We wish Wilson and Agruma well.”
Bath said that while society may consider “everything to be right as rain” for LGBTQ+ people, the reality was that “homophobia is alive and well in Australia”.
“In 2022, to find ourselves in this situation is really disappointing, when we know that people from LGBTIQ+ have elevated rates of mental health [issues],” she said.
She said coming out should be a joyful time for people to talk about who they are, and that process for Wilson had been “tarnished” by the Herald. She pointed to the Australian Press Council’s standards of practice, which refer to the need for respect and consent in discussing a person’s sexual or gender identity.
Bevan
— Magda Szubanski AO (@MagdaSzubanski) June 13, 2022
Your paper has no god-given right to know anything about the private life of anyone
I don’t claim to speak on behalf of Rebel Wilson
But for LGBTQIA+ people the consequences of what is nothing more than a hissy fit over who gets to print gossip can have devastating effects https://t.co/mzrpHTsoU5
To talk to someone about sexuality, identity, or gender issues, call QLife on 1800 184 527 or talk to them online here. For any mental health support, call BeyondBlue on 1300 224 636 or chat to someone on the website
