Rebel Wilson viciously attacked by newspaper who had threatened to out her
Sydney, Australia - Rebel Wilson's coming out was almost spoiled by an Australian newspaper that threatened to publicize her relationship with Ramona Agruma without her consent.
When the Pitch Perfect star confirmed publicly for the first time that she is dating a woman, she was actually beating the Sydney Morning Herald to the punch.
And once the plans to expose Wilson emerged, the publication initially doubled down with a scathing opinion piece Saturday bashing Wilson for coming out on her own terms.
The media outlet claimed it had exercized "an abundance of caution and respect" by emailing Wilson's team and giving the performer "two days to comment on her new relationship" with Agruma before running a story on the couple.
"Big mistake," wrote Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Hornery. "Wilson 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.
"She even had her 'bestie,' the actor Hugh Sheridan, doing radio interviews on breakfast FM on Friday morning, during which he gloated about introducing the women to each other six months ago. Apparently, they had hit it off pretty much immediately but had kept the relationship under wraps."
Rebel Wilson gets support from fans and journalists
The Sydney Morning Herald's piece instantly backfired on social media, with fans and journalists slamming the paper for forcing Wilson to go public with her relationship. "Shameful," "repugnant," and "vile" were some of the milder adjectives used on Twitter.
"June is a good time to remember that we, the media, have to do better when handling news about the LGBTQ+ community," tweeted sports journalist Ines Braga Sampaio.
"Bullying isn't journalism. Outing someone will never be journalism. What the Sydney Morning Herald did to Rebel Wilson is bullying."
The backlash eventually had an effect. In an opinion piece published Monday, the Morning Herald's Andrew Hornery, who is himself gay, "apologized for things I got wrong," including his vicious column published on the weekend.
"As a result, the Herald will take down Saturday’s column and replace it with this one," he announced.
Cover photo: Screenshot/Instagram/Rebel Wilson