Rebel Wilson Responds To An Australian Newspaper Almost Outing Her

Last week, Rebel Wilson announced on Instagram that she had found her Disney Princess and was with entrepreneur Ramona Agruma. Pride flags waved in celebration, rainbow glitter was shot out of a rainbow cannon, and U-Haul slid into Rebel and Ramona’s DMs to congratulate them and offer them a 15% off discount! But Rebel’s coming out wasn’t totally covered in happiness and sparkles because it wasn’t her decision. The Sydney Morning Herald admitted that before Rebel’s announcement, they let her know that they knew about her relationship with Ramona and gave her two days to respond. Rebel responded alright. But Rebel wasn’t about to let The Sydney Morning Herald put her face on their paper with the words “YEP, SHE’S GAY” and instead, beat them to the punch by coming out on Instagram. Rebel has pretty much confirmed that she was forced to come out, but the editor of The Sydney Morning Herald denies that they were trying to push her out of the closet.

Ramona has made appearances on Rebel’s Instagram page throughout the past few months and they have been dating since January. But nobody really knew that until last week when Rebel posted a photo of her and Ramona with the caption: “I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess 💗🌈💗#loveislove” And if Rebel never made that post, the news of her new relationship would’ve been broken by The Sydney Morning Herald. We know this because SMH columnist Andrew Hornery admitted it in a column that was published over the weekend. Andrew wrote that a day before Rebel’s announcement, the SMH emailed her reps “with an abundance of caution and respect” and gave her two days to comment on her relationship with Ramona. Andrew wrote that was a “big mistake” because Rebel “opted to gazump the story, posting about her new ‘Disney Princess’ on Instagram early Friday morning, the same platform she had previously used to brag about her handsome ex-boyfriend, wealthy American beer baron Jacob Busch.” Yup, Andrew was pissed that Rebel fucked up his scoop. He went on to write this:

Considering how bitterly Wilson had complained about poor journalism standards when she successfully sued Woman’s Day for defamation, her choice to ignore our discreet, genuine and honest queries was, in our view, underwhelming.

Of course, who anyone dates is their business, but Wilson happily fed such prurient interest when she had a hunky boyfriend on her arm.

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.

Rebel confirmed that she was forced to come out:

Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace 💗

— Rebel Wilson (@RebelWilson) June 12, 2022

Andrew Hornery’s column went down about as well as a curdled White Russian on an empty stomach. The Sydney Morning Herald deleted Andrew’s column and he wrote a follow-up column titled “I made mistakes over Rebel Wilson, and will learn from them” where he wrote about how he regrets that he made things hard for Rebel. But the drama and messiness doesn’t stop there. Bevan Shields, the editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, wrote another note about this where he washed his hands of any wrongdoing on the SMH’s part.

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.

And somewhere in Australian media villain Rupert Murdoch’s dungeon, he has lifted his head from the virgin whose soul he’s nibbling on to say, “Why is everybody looking at me! I don’t own that paper!”

Pic: INSTARimages.com