A newspaper outlet is under fire for how they handled reporting on Rebel Wilson‘s new love interest. This past Thursday, Wilson, 42, shared in an Instagram post how she is dating Ramona Agruma.
Rebel Wilson Reveals How She Feels About Newspaper Allegedly Planning to Out Her Relationship With Ramona Agruma
“I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess. #loveislove,” she captioned the picture that showed her smiling alongside her girlfriend.
Just days after the star shared news about her relationship, The Sydney Morning Herald published an opinion piece by journalist Andrew Hornery saying that they gave Wilson a two-day deadline to provide a comment before they planned to announce it.
Hornery’s article includes how he felt about Wilson choosing not to collaborate with the publication on announcing her relationship.
“Wilson opted to gazump the story, posting about her new ‘Disney Princess’,” Hornery wrote. The outlet also comments on Wilson’s past relationship with a man.
Rebel’s online followers slammed the newspaper for how they handled the situation with Wilson, including journalist Kate Doak, who wrote on Twitter: “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.”
In response to Kate Doak, Wilson tweeted back to Doak, writing, “Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace.”
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However, Bevan Shields, The Herald editor, denied the paper had “outed” Wilson in a statement shared online Sunday.
“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 wrote. “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 continued. “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.”
Further update. @SMH editor Bevan Shields has now made the following statement on the Sydney Morning Herald’s story yesterday on @RebelWilson. https://t.co/MUm85Gadfk pic.twitter.com/Axhab7Uggs
— Kate Doak (@katedoak) June 12, 2022
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Shields proceeded to say that the story that gained traction online is part of “a column in which the writer’s interaction with his subjects is often part of the story.” He added: “Saturday’s piece followed that theme in giving readers insights into our interaction with Wilson and her PR team. This was not a standard news story.”
Ending his message, the editor wrote: “We wish Wilson and Agruma well.” Just last month, Wilson spoke to PEOPLE about being set up with her new partner “through a friend,” however she didn’t reveal who the love interest was at the time.
“We spoke on the phone for weeks before the meeting. And that was a really good way to get to know each other,” she said. “It was a bit old-school in that sense — very romantic.”
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