Australian newspaper apologises but denies outing Rebel Wilson
The Australian newspaper that ran the story about Rebel Wilson’s new relationship with a woman, has apologised and removed the gossip column.
The paper has faced accusations of outing the actress.
On Friday Rebel shared a picture of her and her new partner saying she had found her “Disney princess.”
Just one day after, the Sydney Morning Herald wrote they’d known about the relationship before it was public and that they had given Wilson 1.5 days to provide a comment for a story.
The article sparked accusations of outing the actress, and the paper and celebrity gossip reporter were both widely condemned for putting pressure on the actress to come out.
A Stonewall spokesperson said: “Coming out is a deeply personal decision. Whether, when and how to come out should be decided by the individual, entirely on their terms.
“It is simply not OK to ‘out’ LGBTQ+ people or put pressure on us to come out. Media outlets should take care not to sensationalise LGBTQ+ lives and relationships.”
Bold move to run an editor’s note claiming that the paper wasn’t trying to out Rebel Wilson after the columnist in question has already written not one but two columns describing in intricate detail his attempts to out Rebel Wilson
— Sarah Holland-Batt (@the_shb) June 12, 2022
However, the newspaper is now denying it pressured the actress, stating they “simply asked questions.” On Monday, amid continued backlash, columnist Andrew Hornery admitted they had “mishandled steps in our approach.”
“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.”
He also said that “as a gay man, I’m well aware of how deeply discrimination hurts” and that he would not wish to “inflict that pain on someone else”.
He included in his Monday column the email he had sent Wilson’s representatives last Thursday morning.
In it he had written that he had “enough detail to publish” and “several sources”, before specifying a Friday 13:00 deadline.
“In the interests of transparency and fairness, before publishing, I am reaching out to Rebel to see if she will engage….,” he’d written.
The Australian actress did not respond to the email but made her own post on Friday. She has yet to directly comment on the actions of the newspaper.
However, she hinted that it was not her choice to come out in response to a tweet. In a response to a tweet which stated it was not the actress’s choice to publicly come out, she responded it was a “very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace”.
Absolute kicker is @smh legitimately scolding Rebel Wilson bc when faced with a newspaper saying they are going to out her without her consent & she has two days to supply a quote, she quickly came out first.
As if @smh owns HER story, is entitled to break it & she scooped THEM!
— Sally Rugg (@sallyrugg) June 12, 2022
Rebel’s new relationship with designer Ramona Agruma prompted plenty of congratulations from fans and famous friends.
In the original column published the day after Wilson’s Instagram post, Hornery claimed that Wilson had “opted to gazump the story” after he’d been in touch.
He added that “her choice to ignore our discreet, genuine and honest queries was, in our view, underwhelming”.
In Monday’s note he acknowledged “the tone of my column on Saturday was also off”.
“I got it wrong,” he admitted. “I allowed my disappointment to cast a shadow over the piece. That was not fair and I apologise.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CelyiLZLHa2/
Bevan Shields – the paper’s editor has also been heavily criticised following his ‘editors note’ on Sunday – which defended the report. In the ‘editors note’ he denies the paper outed Wilson saying the newsroom had made no decisions on whether a report would have been published.
He wrote: “Like other mastheads do every day, we simply asked questions and as standard practice included a deadline for a response.”His ‘editors note’ sparked further anger and backlash.
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