Rebel Wilson breaks silence on being ‘forced’ to come out by Australian journalist
Rebel Wilson has responded to an attempt by an Australian newspaper to publish an article about her relationship before she could address it publicly herself. (Vivien Killilea/Getty for Netflix)
Rebel Wilson has opened up about her experience of being threatened with being outed by a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald for the first time.
The actress has previously revealed that columnist Andre Hornery “threatened” to publish an article back in June in which he detailed Rebel’s relationship with fashion designer Ramona Agruma.
In a new interview with The Australian, Wilson revealed she was “forced” to come out, despite not ever keeping her relationship private.
“Obviously, my relationship with Ramona is something that I wasn’t hiding in any way – it wasn’t a secret,” she said.
“It was just a hard few days, especially for my partner who’s not used to being in the public eye and not used to having to deal with stuff like that. It was probably more harmful for her in many respects.
“But to me, in 2022, love is love. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal and that we should kind of be forced to make an announcement about it. But that happened.”
Rebel Wilson with Ramona Agruma in April 2022. (Getty)
When she was threatened with being outed, Wilson pre-emptively posted an Instagram photo of her and Arum.
“I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,” she wrote at the time.
Fans were initially thrilled at the news, but quickly grew angry when they realised the circumstances under which the news broke.
The journalist later said he felt “genuine regret” for planning to run the story outing Wilson.
Wilson also discussed the levels and difficulties of coming out.
“Coming out in a same-sex relationship, there are levels to telling people. You tell your close family and your friends and not everybody,” she added.
“Across our two families not everybody is as accepting as what you’d hoped for, and we were trying to be respectful to those people and tell them in our own way.
“Basically, with the situation where a journalist is threatening to out you, you’ve got to hurry and some people we didn’t get a chance to tell before it came out publicly. And that’s not ideal.”
Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Hornery says he’s learned “difficult lessons” amid backlash over his article about Rebel Wilson. (Arturo Holmes/FilmMagic)
Wilson recently sparked engagement rumours after posting a picture featuring a ring on her left hand.
