Rebel Wilson is owed an apology. This is… not quite it…
In case you missed the news over the weekend, the Pitch Perfect star coming out and going Instagram official with her girlfriend Ramona Agruma — her first public LGBT relationship — was not 100% her idea.
See, the two have been dating since at least January but chose to keep it private. However, a Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Hornery got the scoop and decided he was going to go public with the story, whether she was ready or not. SMH indeed… He sent her a request for comment, along with a deadline — something many have interpreted as a pretty clear threat.
Instead of letting the publication out her, Rebel decided to come out on her own on Thursday. So when it came time to publish his article on Saturday, Hornery was downright ornery! He complained in his column that giving her the warning was a “big mistake” and expressed annoyance that Rebel had “opted to gazump the story” by putting out her own life update. We mean, the nerve.
Related: Rebel & Ramona Are ‘Very Serious’ & Still ‘Super Happy’ Despite Coming Out Controversy!
It’s 2022, and EVERYONE in the industry is well aware how hurtful it is to out someone by now (trust us)! It’s been a struggle, with a lot of difficult growing pains, but society is pretty much on the same page with this now.
In a new post on Monday, Hornery did write to apologize to Rebel, but like many lackluster apologies we see all the time in this job, a lot of the square mileage is taken up by making more excuses. He began:
“On the weekend I wrote about the background leading to Rebel Wilson’s social media post revealing her new relationship with another woman. I have learnt some new and difficult lessons from this and want to be upfront with you about the things I got wrong.”
He continued:
“I genuinely regret that Rebel has found this hard. That was never my intention. But I see she has handled it all with extraordinary grace.”
He regrets that Rebel found this hard. Does that s0und to anyone else like “sorry you were offended”? He then played the LGBT community card, writing:
“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.”
He said he thought her dating someone new was a story worthy of covering “as her previous boyfriends had been.” Wild that “as a gay man” he’s saying he doesn’t see the distinction between her having a new man on her arm and COMING OUT AS LGBT. We mean, we understand that in a perfect world it shouldn’t — and wouldn’t — be seen as anything other than love, but there’s still a lot of hate in the one we’re livin’ in. And again, coming out is personal choice.
Hornery admits the SMH “mishandled steps” in contacting her. He included the full email he sent to Rebel on Thursday morning, pointing out it’s “standard procedure” to relay his deadline:
“Good morning. I am a journalist from The Sydney Morning Herald and I was hoping I could get a comment from Rebel regarding her new relationship.
While I realise Rebel’s partner has not been mentioned as yet, I have several sources who have confirmed their status and I have enough detail to publish.
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.
My deadline is Friday, 1pm Sydney-time. Regards, Andrew Hornery.”
He wrote about the request:
“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.”
Yeah, sorry, but you just can’t put a deadline on such a HUGE life step. Hornery goes on to say that after the backlash, now he understands:
“It is not the Herald’s business to “out” people and that is not what we set out to do. But I understand why my email has been seen as a threat. The framing of it was a mistake.”
He did at least apologize for how rude he came across in his column, what with the flagrant use of the word “gazump,” saying:
“In trying to tell the story within the story, which is what Private Sydney does, the tone of my column on Saturday was also off. I got it wrong. I allowed my disappointment to cast a shadow over the piece. That was not fair and I apologise. As a result, the Herald will take down Saturday’s column and replace it with this one.”
Again, saying the tone was “off” is not exactly taking himself to task here. But at least it’s something, and at least they’re taking it down.
What do YOU think, Perezcious readers??
[Image via Rebel Wilson/Instagram]
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