The 'Pitch Perfect' actress took to Twitter to comment on 'The Sydney Morning Herald's report.
Rebel Wilson introduced her girlfriend to the world on Instagram this week in what was perceived as a celebration of Pride Month, however, the actress now shares, "it was a very hard situation."
Journalist Andrew Hornery wrote an opinion piece for The Sydney Morning Herald, where he revealed the Pitch Perfect star was given a short, two-day deadline to come out to the world before the publication would report on it.
Fellow journalist Kate Doak took to Twitter to share the piece, writing, "So apparently it wasn't @RebelWilson's choice to come out... The @smh/@theage have admitted to giving her a heads up 2 days in advance that they were going to 'out' her. What's worse, openly gay men at the Sydney Morning Herald were involved in this."
Wilson commented on Doak's tweet, revealing, "Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace."
Hornery has since taken down that opinion piece and replaced it with a new one, sharing what he "got wrong" and the regret he feels after Wilson shared that she found the situation "hard."
"I genuinely regret that Rebel has found this hard. That was never my intention. But I see she has handled it all with extraordinary grace. As a gay man I’m well aware of how deeply discrimination hurts," Hornery wrote Monday. "The last thing I would ever want to do is inflict that pain on someone else."
He continued, "Writing a weekly column about the personal lives of the rich, powerful and famous comes with its own unique set of challenges. A celebrity romance is a happy story. When I started hearing from friends and associates of Rebel that she was in a new relationship, as a gossip columnist I could see that was potentially a story, as her previous boyfriends had been."
After seeing posts from the pair for months on Instagram, Hornery said he assumed Wilson would be open to discussing the relationship, especially after sharing the news that she had been dating and was "very happy."
"So, after months of posts of the women together on Rebel’s Instagram account -- from Oscars parties to Valentine’s Day, and most recently as VIP guests at the gay and lesbian World Pride Polo match in Florida -- I assumed there was a good chance she might be happy to discuss it. She had already revealed a month ago that she had been dating and was very happy," Hornery said. "But we mishandled steps in our approach."
Hornery shared that he then reached out to Wilson's management and asked about her relationship directly, informing him of his Friday deadline, in which he planned to go public with the information. After not hearing from Wilson, or her team, Hornery felt he had to go-ahead to publish his piece, but Wilson beat him to it.
On Thursday, Wilson posted a photo with her girlfriend, Ramona Agruma, with the caption, "I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess 💗🌈💗 #loveislove."
"In the early hours of Friday morning Sydney-time, Rebel posted on Instagram about finding her 'Disney Princess', Ramona Agruma, which I, along with the rest of the global media, wrote about," Hornery went on to write. "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."
Adding, "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."
Hornery promised to approach things differently moving forward, especially when it comes to writing about sexuality.
"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 said.
Not only did Hornery admit to getting it wrong, he apologized and noted that the column would be taken down.
"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," Hornery admitted. "As a result, The Herald will take down Saturday’s column and replace it with this one."
Hornery's latest op-ed comes after Herald editor Bevan Shields came out with a statement denying "outing" Wilson. "Our weekly Private Sydney celebrity column last week asked Wilson if she wished to comment about her new partner. We would have asked the same questions had Wilson's new partner been a man," he explained. "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," Shields said. "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."
The editor went on to say, "We wish Wilson and Agruma well."
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