Rebel Wilson Was Pressured To Come Out & A Newspaper Was About To Reveal It Without Her
Rebel Wilson came out last week and introduced her "Disney Princess" girlfriend to the world on her Instagram, but it turns out that her huge announcement was not exactly her decision.
The Pitch Perfect actress didn't plan on sharing details of her sexuality during Pride Month, but it seems an Australian newspaper left her with little choice.
The Sydney Morning Herald has apologized after one of its columnists tried to break the info as news, which forced her into revealing it herself.
Wilson made the big announcement on her Instagram on June 9 by posting a photo of her and her girlfriend Ramona Agruma with an adorable caption about finding love.
"I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess 💗🌈💗#loveislove," read the caption.
Herald columnist Andrew Hornery had apparently given Wilson a heads-up that he was about to out her, and that's what prompted her move.
Australian journalist Kate Doak later called out the Herald for the move, sparking some angry backlash against the paper and its writer, Hornery.
\u201cSo apparently it wasn't @RebelWilson'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. \ud83e\udd26\ud83c\udffc\u200d\u2640\ufe0f https://t.co/Zl80zg01SW\u201d— Kate Doak (@Kate Doak) 1654918889
"So apparently, it wasn't @RebelWilson'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," read Doak's tweet. "What's worse, openly gay men at the Sydney Morning Herald were involved in this."
Instead of denying the allegations, Wilson responded to Doak's tweet by thanking her and confirming the news.
\u201c@katedoak @smh @theage Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace \ud83d\udc97\u201d— Kate Doak (@Kate Doak) 1654918889
"Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace," tweeted back Wilson.
The Sydney Morning Herald has been playing damage control ever since.
The original article about Wilson's relationship status was removed from their website, and instead, it links to a separate story where Hornery apologizes.
The article, an opinion piece, is titled "I made mistakes over Rebel Wilson, and will learn from them."
"I genuinely regret that Rebel has found this hard. That was never my intention," shared Hornery. "But I see she has handled it all with extraordinary grace."
"As a gay man, I'm well aware of how deeply discrimination hurts. The last thing I would ever want to do is inflict that pain on someone else," he said.
He initially contacted Wilson's team via email with a question that discussed her relationship status for his weekly column that goes out every Saturday.
His email said the following:
"Good morning. I am a journalist from The Sydney Morning Herald and I was hoping I could get a comment from Rebel regarding her new relationship.
While I realise Rebel's partner has not been mentioned as yet, I have several sources who have confirmed their status and I have enough detail to publish.
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.
My deadline is Friday, 1 pm Sydney time. Regards, Andrew Hornery."
He never heard back from Wilson's team, but hours after sending the email, Wilson came out to her followers on her Instagram.
"It is not the Herald's business to 'out' people, and that is not what we set out to do. But I understand why my email has been seen as a threat," wrote Hornery.
"The framing of it was a mistake."
