Rebel Wilson’s outing condemned by Australian press standards organisation

Rebel Wilson says she’s glad that the Australian Press Council has condemned the Sydney Morning Herald for outing her.

In June, the 42-year-old Australian actor was forced to come out before Andrew Hornery outed her.

Hornery’s gossip column was published but was later deleted from the website and the tabloid journalist denied outing the actor. He later apologised for his handling of the situation.

Nevertheless, she recently told The Australian that she wasn’t hiding the relationship with her girlfriend, fashion designer Ramona Agruma, but was trying to come out “in our own way.”

“Basically, with the situation where a journalist is threatening to out you, you’ve got to hurry and some people we didn’t get a chance to tell before it came out publicly. And that’s not ideal,” she continued. “I didn’t think it was that big of a deal and that we should kind of be forced to make an announcement about it. But that happened.”

The Australian Press Council, who is responsible for responding to complaints about Australian outlets, published an adjudication on Saturday (29 October) that outlined the gossip column’s publishers should’ve been aware it “was likely to cause substantial offence and distress.”

The statement concludes that the Sydney Morning Herald “failed to take reasonable steps to comply with the Council’s Standards of Practice concerning privacy and avoidance of harm.”

The Council also outlines that the communications and commentary on the “deeply personal matter… intruded on her reasonable expectations of privacy.”

The statement adds that “there was sufficient public interest to justify such an intrusion,” and the paper had breached two of the council’s standard principles.

The Bridesmaids star shared her thoughts on the Press Council’s official statement with an adorable photo of her and Agruma on Instagram (30 October).

“Just seeing the news that the Australian Press Council has condemned the Sydney Morning Herald and their journalists for their recent grubby behaviour in trying to out my same-sex relationship,” Wilson wrote.

She added that she didn’t “personally ask for any action to be taken,” but is “glad that this has been officially recorded and recognized.”

“Their actions did cause Ramona and I a lot of distress and while we’ve remained classy, there are still pains from having to rush this news publicly which we are dealing with,” she adds.

Wilson’s upcoming film, The Almond and the Seahorse, will see her first on-screen kiss with a woman, she shared she was nervous to act opposite Charlotte Gainsbourg.

“But Charlotte is so professional and great to work with and it was good. Obviously, it’s never very romantic kissing anybody on set, but it was definitely a cool experience.”