Pitch Perfect and Jojo Rabbit star Rebel Wilson has spoken out for the first time after it was revealed a publication was planning to write a story about her same-sex relationship.
Wilson wrote in an Instagram post on Friday that she had found her "Disney princess", but a column in the Sydney Morning Herald the next day admitted that they had contacted the star's representatives earlier in the week about running the story on the weekend, and found it "underwhelming" that Wilson had "opted to gazump the story".
This led to plenty of comments online criticising the Herald for trying to "out" Wilson – writing about a queer person's sexuality when they haven't personally confirmed it themselves – which is similarly harmful to speculating on someone's sexuality.
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Among the outpouring of support for the actress was a tweet from Australian TV journalist Kate Doak, who condemned the Herald's column. It was her tweet that Wilson responded to.
"Thanks for your comments," she wrote, "it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace."
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The column has since been taken down and replaced with a link to a new article that expresses "regret that Rebel has found this hard" and understands how the email was seen as a "threat" to out the star by her and her team.
"The framing of [the email] was a mistake," columnist Andrew Hornery added. "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."
Wilson spoke about her relationship a month before the post, although she didn't name partner Ramona Agruma or reveal she was dating another woman.
"There were times – I'm not saying with all my exes, they're great – but there were some times that I was probably putting up with what I shouldn't have. So it feels different to be in a really healthy relationship," she told People.
Following Wilson's post, actor Hugh Sheridan explained that they were the one to set Wilson and Agruma up together.
Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
