Rebel Wilson breaks silence over 'outing' controversy; 'Trying to handle it with grace'

Days after making her relationship public with girlfriend fashion designer Ramona Agruma, Rebel Wilson responded to the 'outing' controversy. Before the 42-year-old revealed her partner on social media, an Australian daily had asked the actor to comment on her new romantic relationship via email. The newspaper has since deleted the column after facing backlash. 

Many netizens alleged that the newspaper forced the actor to come out about her relationship after giving her a 'deadline'. Columnist Andrew Hornery explained the situation along with an apology for the handling of the piece of news. 

Rebel Wilson breaks silence on 'outing' controversy

Taking to her Twitter handle, Wilson broke her silence about the controversy in response to a tweet, stating that the actor was given a 'deadline' before the Australian newspaper Sydney Morning Herald 'out' her. The Pitch Perfect actor wrote, ''Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace''.

Following the controversy, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Hornery tendered an apology whilst explaining the situation that led to netizens calling out the newspaper for 'outing' the actor. The original article was replaced by Hornery's apology. He explained that it was never his 'intention' and admitted that they 'mishandled steps in our approach'.

''However, in the interests of transparency and fairness, before publishing, I am reaching out to Rebel to see if she will engage in what I believe is a happy and unexpected news story for her, especially given the recent Pride celebrations,'' Hornery revealed that he wrote in the email to Wilson's management and provided a deadline as respect to the 'standard procedure to set out the timeframe'. 

He also wrote, ''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,'' and admitted that the 'framing' of his email was a mistake. 

Meanwhile, as per media reports, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Editor Bevan Shields reacted to the backlash in a statement that read, ''Our weekly Private Sydney celebrity column 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”.

Image: Instagram/@rebelwilson