Australian Press Council: SMH piece caused ‘substantial offence and distress’ for Rebel Wilson
The Australian Press Council (APC) ruled the Sydney Morning Herald’s (SMH) piece on actress Rebel Wilson’s same-sex relationship breached its Standards of Practice, citing “substantial offence and distress” caused for Wilson.
The Nine masthead published an opinion piece in June, saying the SMH intended to reveal Wilson’s relationship before she announced it on Instagram herself.
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The columnist, Andrew Hornery, said in the article that 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.”
The opinion piece has since been taken down. SMH has also issued two apologies to Wilson.
APC said in its adjudication that while Wilson is a public figure and her reasonable expectations of privacy may be intruded out of public interest, SMH’s commentary on her relationship “had no apparent connection to her public activities”.
Additionally, the article’s reference to “outing” the couple and giving them two days to respond had likely caused “substantial offence and distress”.
Commenting on APC’s ruling of SMH’s “grubby behaviour”, Wilson said on Instagram: “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. We move on, focusing on all the absolutely amazing new things in our life though!”
Wilson previously launched a high profile defamation case against Bauer Media in 2016.
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Darcy Song was a reporter at Mumbrella, covering media owners, adtech and social platforms. She left in October 2023.
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