Packed to the Rafters actor Hugh Sheridan has slammed an Australian journalist for “outing” Rebel Wilson saying it was “painful” to read.
Sheridan – who is openly gay and identifies as non-binary – had a piece written about them by the same reporter after their own “coming out” two years ago.
“Repeat offender @smh @theage this was the most painful piece to read just after coming out,’ Sheridan wrote and included a link to the article about them.
Repeat offender @smh @theage this was the most painful piece to read just after coming out. We don’t “speak out” as we’re used to being taunted. So much of this article isn’t fact. You should be ashamed of the treatment of humans who choose to come out. https://t.co/rc2ITf9MJ0
— Hugh Sheridan (@hugh_sheridan) June 13, 2022
Wilson publicly revealed her new love interest on social media last week, writing: “I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince … but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,” alongside a photo of her and girlfriend Ramona Agruma.
Shortly after, Sydney Morning Herald published a column claiming that they had the scoop on Wilson’s new relationship, and emailed her for comment with a “two day deadline”. The actress then took it upon herself to come out on her own social media. SMH published a follow up article explaining their reasoning behind the incident, but have since apologised and pulled it off the website.
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Sheridan is one of many celebrities to rally around Wilson in support of the ‘Pitch Perfect’ actress choosing to “control her own narrative”. Abbie Chatfield, Whoopi Goldberg, Magda Szubanski and Matt Lucas have all offered words of support.
“There’s a lot of speculation that Rebel came out to get ahead of a tabloid story in the Sydney Morning Herald about her relationship,” Goldberg said on The View.
“Now, the man who wrote it even apologised, saying it was ‘never his intention to out her’… Well, you know that’s not true.”
She added:”‘If it wasn’t your intention, you wouldn’t have done it. If you didn’t want to do it, you shouldn’t have done it. You knew exactly what you were doing.”
Sheridan spoke about Wilson’s new relationship on 2Day FM’s Hughesy, Ed and Erin the same morning that the actress debuted it.
“I’m a bit of a matchmaker in my spare time, I like to set people up and I’ve got a very good success rate. A few marriages in there,” the actor said, claiming that they set the two women up.
Sheridan revealed that their pals Wilson and Agruma were both “really hard” to set up, but they eventually has a light bulb moment when they realised the two women would be perfect for each other.
“Ramona is really smart, she speaks lots of languages … and Rebel is very smart. I was in New York and I’d just split up with my ex and was feeling very sad and Rebel said, ‘I just can’t imagine how you feel because I’ve never been in love before,’ and I thought, gosh she’s a hard one to crack,” he explained.
“But then I just had this thought that maybe I’m looking in the wrong spot. I think a woman who’s that successful needs a very strong man … But a woman with a woman who’s successful, maybe they’d just lift each other up … Then I thought of Ramona straight away.
“I said … Give me a minute … and I told Rebel later on that it’s a girl,” They added.
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