Whoopi Goldberg blasts Sydney Morning Herald over Rebel Wilson column

The outspoken panellist drew cheers from the studio audience as she fired up over the Sydney Morning Herald’s column on actor Rebel Wilson’s new relationship.

Outspoken comedian Whoopi Goldberg has taken aim at the Sydney Morning Herald over its controversial Rebel Wilson column.

Wilson, 42, introduced fans last week to her new girlfriend Ramona Agruma on social media.

But on Saturday, The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that it had known about the relationship and had given Wilson two days to respond to questions about her love life.

Andrew Hornery wrote a piece in his Private Sydney gossip column under the headline “Rebel starts spreading the news”.

“It was an abundance of caution and respect that this media outlet emailed Rebel Wilson’s representatives on Thursday morning, giving her two days to comment on her new relationship with another woman, LA leisure wear designer Ramona Agruma, before publishing a single word,” he wrote.

“Big mistake. 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 columnist triggered a worldwide outcry with Goldberg the latest to join in.

Whoopi Goldberg responds to the Rebel Wilson newspaper drama on The View panel show.

The View panellist called the situation “insane” when the topic was raised on the show on Monday.

“There’s a lot of speculation that (Wilson came out) to get ahead of a tabloid story in the Sydney Morning Herald about her relationship. Now, the man who wrote it even apologised, saying it was ‘never his intention to ‘out’ her’ … Well, you know that’s not true, because if it wasn’t your intention you wouldn’t have done it,” Goldberg said drawing cheers from the studio audience.

“If you didn’t want to do it, you shouldn’t have done it – you knew exactly what you were doing.”

Goldberg said she believes Wilson probably felt cornered by Hornery into revealing her relationship with Agruma, after the journalist contacted her about her sexuality with a deadline.

“It seems these are the only moves people have to get in front of a story before it’s all over social media or every other media … and there’s got to be a better way to do it,” she said, before co-panellist Sara Haines joined the conversation.

“The author (Hornery) was a gay man himself, so you’d think he’d have a unique empathy to how people come to those decisions, where they’re at, if they even have something to call it … It’s sad that (celebrities) are even in this situation, where they need to release stories they aren’t ready to talk about,” Haines said.

“But I think that’s a better way to own the narrative, I wouldn’t give a quote or talk to a place that’s forcing me to talk about something I’m not ready to talk about.”

Goldberg added the “people want to know” argument was unfair on the individual.

“I don’t care what people ‘want to know’, frankly,” she said.

“I want to keep my privacy, and the fact that people constantly say, ‘oh well, if you don’t tell us, we’re going to tell it however we want to’ – I now say, ‘go ahead!’

“They’re not going to stop because you told them the truth, they don’t care. It’s insane.”

The panel also lashed out at Sydney Morning Herald editor Bevan Shields, who issued a note to readers on Sunday without an apology.

Hornery instead issued an open apology to Wilson on Monday – and said he had learnt some new and difficult lessons.

“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,” the gossip columnist wrote.

“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 said.

“When I started hearing from friends and associates of Rebel that she was in a new relationship, as a gossip columnist I could see that was potentially a story, as her previous boyfriends had been,” he wrote in the apology.

“So, after months of posts of the women together on Rebel’s Instagram account — from Oscars parties to Valentine’s Day, and most recently as VIP guests at the gay and lesbian World Pride Polo match in Florida — I assumed there was a good chance she might be happy to discuss it.

“She had already revealed a month ago that she had been dating and was very happy,” Hornery said.

Shields tweeted: “The Herald made mistakes over Rebel Wilson, and will learn from them. Saturday’s piece has been retracted and Andrew Hornery goes into detail here about what we didn’t get right.”

Fans were quick to voice their outrage over the piece complaining about how she announced the relationship herself – before its editor released a further statement insisting it had not pressured Wilson into coming out.

And as outrage aimed at the newspaper poured in, Wilson took to Twitter to respond.

Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace 💗

— Rebel Wilson (@RebelWilson) June 12, 2022

“It was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace,” she wrote, adding a love heart emoji.

Last month, Wilson told People magazine that she was “happily” in a relationship but did not elaborate further on the identity of her partner.

But last week, she made her relationship public.

“I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince … but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,” the Pitch Perfect actor wrote in a caption of a selfie with Agruma.

A short time later, actor and close friend of Wilson, Hugh Sheridan, posted a series of pictures and videos with the three of them revealing he introduced the couple to each other.

Rebel Wilson with her girlfriend Ramona Agruma. Picture: Getty Images

“My two best friends. Call me c-hupid,” Sheridan wrote on Instagram alongside a series of photos and videos of Wilson and Agruma with the actor.

Mr Hornery said in his column that the actress had her “bestie”, actor Hugh Sheridan, do radio interviews on breakfast FM on Friday morning, during which he gloated about introducing the women to each other six months ago.

“Apparently they had hit it off pretty much immediately, but had kept the relationship under wrap,” he said.

“Considering how bitterly Wilson had complained about poor journalism standards when she successfully sued Woman’s Day for defamation, her choice to ignore our discreet, genuine and honest queries was, in our view, underwhelming.”

Rebel Wilson pictured with girlfriend, Ramona Agruma, and James Corden at the Oscars. Picture: Instagram

Earlier, Shields published a note offering “transparency” on what happened.

“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. 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.

“Private Sydney is a column in which the writer’s interaction with his subjects is often part of the story. 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.”

Mr Shields signed off by wishing the couple well.

Originally published as Whoopi Goldberg blasts Sydney Morning Herald over Rebel Wilson column