SMH Breached Aussie Actor Rebel Wilson’s Privacy In Article On Coming Out As Gay: Press Council

Australian actor Rebel Wilson was “likely” subjected to “substantial offence and distress” by a perceived threat to “out” her, the Australian Press Council has found. 

The country’s media watchdog held that Sydney Morning Herald breached the actor’s reasonable expectation of privacy when it published an article in June this year about  her coming out as gay. 

Sydney Morning Herald gossip columnist Andrew Hornery had contacted Wilson, earlier this year, about a story that the actor was dating Los Angeles-based designer Ramona Agruma. The columnist gave the actor two days to respond or the publication  would go ahead and publish a story about the relationship. 

Wilson, who was not out then, preempted the story and announced on her social media that she was in a relationship with Agruma. 

Complaints Said Actor Was Forced To Out Herself

Hornery then wrote an article with the headline “Rebel starts spreading the news”, which was published in print and online on June 11, 2022. In the article, Hornery had bemoaned that he had missed out on a scoop. “Big mistake. Wilson opted to gazump the story, posting about her new ‘Disney Princess’ on Instagram,” the columnist said.

“Up to now, Wilson had identified publicly as a heterosexual woman. It is unlikely she would have experienced the sort of discrimination let alone homophobia – subconscious or overt – that sadly still affects so many gay, lesbian and non-hetero people,” Hornery claimed. 

The Council heard complaints that Wilson was forced to out herself due to the columnist’s request for comments and the article itself had criticised the actor for not responding the columnist’s questions and instead coming out on social media. 

The complainants said that the columnist’s request for a request for information could be perceived as a threat to “out” her as gay in the media. 

Sydney Morning Herald had, subsequently, retracted the article and published two apologies. The publication conceded that it had breached the “Council’s Standards of Practice concerning privacy and avoidance of harm”. 

No Sufficient Public Interest To Justify Intruding On Actor’s Privacy

“The Council accepts that public figures, such as Ms Wilson, can have a reduced expectation of privacy and there can also be a public interest sufficient to justify intruding on their reasonable expectations of privacy,” the media watchdog said. 

“However, in this instance, the Council considers that the tenor of the publication’s communications with Ms Wilson concerning a deeply personal matter and the associated commentary on a matter, which had no apparent connection to her public activities, intruded on her reasonable expectations of privacy. The Council does not consider there was sufficient public interest to justify such an intrusion.”

“The Council considers that, taken collectively, the article’s reference to “outing” same-sex celebrity couples, its reference to giving Ms Wilson two days to respond to information concerning her relationship, and its forthright criticism of her for not responding, was likely to cause substantial offence and distress. The Council does not consider there was a sufficient public interest justification in doing so,” the Council said in its adjudication order on October 29, 2022. 

In an interview with the Australian, Wilson spoke about the threat to “out” and had called it “grubby behaviour”.