Aussie Paper Denies 'Outing' Actress Rebel Wilson Amid Storm of Criticism

Members and sympathizers of the LGBTQ+ community reacted angrily when the story broke out, claiming that the Sydney Morning Herald's deadline compelled Wilson to publicly reveal her relationship to girlfriend Ramona Agruma without having the opportunity to do so at her leisure.

The Sydney Morning Herald has responded to accusations that it 'outed' Australian actress Rebel Wilson by giving her a two-day deadline to remark on her current relationship, which she had not previously mentioned publicly.

On Sunday, Wilson appeared to confirm that the Herald's communication with her was inappropriate, reacting to a tweet that indicated the Herald "admitted to giving her a heads up 2 days in advance that they were going to ‘out’ her."

"Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace," the 42-year-old actress wrote.

The newspaper's editor Bevan Shields addressed the development in an official statement on Sunday, underscoring that saying "the Herald ‘outed’ Rebel Wilson is wrong."

According to the editor, the newspaper's weekly Private Sydney celebrity column asked the star to provide a comment on her new partner, and that the outlet would do absolutely the same if the partner was a male.

"Like other mastheads do every day, we simply asked the questions and as standard practice included a deadline for a response," Shields explained. "We made no decision about whether or what to publish, and our 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. We wish them both well."

Wilson made her relationship public with a snapshot of herself and girlfriend Ramona Agruma on her Instagram account on Thursday. "I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess," she said in the description.

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The Sydney Morning Herald published an editorial column on Wilson's relationship on Saturday, two days after Wilson acknowledged her new partner-in-crime, titled "Rebel starts spreading the news of relationship," detailing the publication's process of contacting Wilson and "giving her two days to comment on her new relationship… before publishing a single word."

Andrew Hornery, the journalist responsible for the article, wrote that Wilson's decision to dismiss the outlet's "discreet, genuine and honest queries" was "underwhelming," given how the actress had "complained about poor journalism standards when she successfully sued Woman's Day for defamation."

The newspaper further addressed the matter by explaining that the column detailed the writer's interaction with the subject as "this was not a standard news story."

In a follow-up piece, Hornery acknowledged that he has since "learned some new and difficult lessons."