Rebel Wilson: “It was a very hard situation.”

Even Nine-owned Pedestrian TV has come to the defence of Rebel Wilson after the Sydney Morning Herald published a column that lamented giving the star a two day deadline to comment on her relationship with girlfriend Ramona Agruma.

“It’s 2022. We all know by now that outing people is super wrong. Everyone should be able to come out on their own terms, no matter how famous they are,” Pedestrian TV wrote.

“Rebel owning her queerness and coming out via her own socials is awesome. But it’s sad to think she may have felt pressured to come out before she was ready.”

Those views were reflected widely yesterday online after columnist Andrew Horney wrote, “…it was with an abundance of caution and respect that this media outlet emailed Rebel Wilson’s representatives on Thursday morning, giving her two days to comment on her new relationship with LA leisure wear designer Ramona Agruma, before publishing a single word.”

On Friday Wilson confirmed Agruma as her “Disney princess” on social media, thus denying the newspaper any kind of scoop.

But a fierce backlash emerged online when it was clear the announce was not entirely of her own timing.

The pile-on against the Herald was widespread, and filed by international media: News.com.au, The Australian, SKY News, Variety, CNN, BBC, EW, Yahoo, The Independent, Metro, Newser, Stuff.co.nz., Just Jared.

The backlash prompted editor Bevan Shields to defend their actions.

“To say that the Herald ‘outed’ Wilson is wrong. Like other mastheads do every day, we simply asked questions and as standard practice included a deadline for a response. I had made no decision about whether or what to publish, and the Herald’s decision about what to do would have been informed by any response Wilson supplied,” he wrote.

“Wilson made the decision to publicly disclose her new partner – who had been a feature of her social media accounts for months.”

But on social media others rejected Shields’ explanation too.

Wilson described the situation as “a very hard situation” which she endeavoured to handle “with grace.”

Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace 💗

— Rebel Wilson (@RebelWilson) June 12, 2022

Updated:

Andrew Hornery has apologised in a new column.

“My email was never intended to be a threat but to make it clear I was sufficiently confident with my information and to open a conversation.

“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. The framing of it was a mistake.

“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.”

He added, “… we need to make it clear that a deadline is not an ultimatum. In trying to tell the story within the story, which is what Private Sydney does, the tone of my column on Saturday was also off. I got it wrong. I allowed my disappointment to cast a shadow over the piece. That was not fair and I apologise.

“As a result, the Herald will take down Saturday’s column and replace it with this one.”