When Rebel Wilson seemingly came out of the blue last week and showed off her girlfriend in an adorable Instagram post, many thought it was random, but were happy to celebrate the actress. Now, however, it’s looking like she was being blackmailed to reveal that she was dating a woman. A now-deleted article from the Sydney Morning Herald claimed that they had prior knowledge regarding Wilson’s sexuality and had reached out to Wilson on Thursday, giving her “two days to comment on her new relationship” before publishing a story on it. Instead of commenting, however, she went ahead and posted about her relationship, which the reporter complained that this ruined his scoop for the story.
For people asking confirmation of who says this wasn't @RebelWilson's choice, the @smh (Sydney Morning Herald) admits it in the link attached to my initial tweet. Screenshot also here ???????????? pic.twitter.com/BwokQlmtIc
— Kate Doak (@katedoak) June 11, 2022
In the article, he claims Wilson ” opted to gazump the story, posting about her new ‘Disney Princess’ on Instagram early Friday morning. The same platform she had previously used to brag about her handsome ex-boyfriend, wealthy American beer baron Jacob Busch.” Now, the author of the original; article columnist Andrew Hornery apologizes, claiming “As a gay man I’m well aware of how deeply discrimination hurts. The last thing I would ever want to do is inflict that pain on someone else.” Many found issues with Hornery asking for comment before he released the story and then becoming upset that his “story” was ruined when she decided to come out on Instagram. But, many argued that Wilson should have always been given the right to come out when she felt ready and not because a journalist was running a story about it.
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. ????????♀️ https://t.co/Zl80zg01SW
— Kate Doak (@katedoak) June 11, 2022
Although Hornery said that the framing of his article was a “mistake” and that he did not mean to insinuate his asking of a comment to be a threat, many noted that this was probably incredibly stressful for Wilson, who had to make a decision on how people would find out her sexuality. She broke her silence on Twitter, responding to a journalist online that discussed the piece and why it was wrong. “Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace,” she wrote.
https://twitter.com/RebelWilson/status/1535916383577460738?s=20&t=afZBs4j9sODd4OHxvzRUdg
Just as people online supported Wilson when she first came out, many were just as supportive after finding out the reason why she decided to come out. “I am so beyond disgusted at this. turns out Rebel Wilson only came out to avoid being forcefully outed and now that newspaper is pissed at her for ruining their scoop… no one deserves this,” one person wrote on Twitter.
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