'A journalist forced me to announce my relationship'

Rebel Wilson has for the first time revealed how journalist Andrew Hornery "threatened" to publicise her same-sex relationship against her will.

Rebel Wilson. Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic.

Rebel Wilson has for the first time revealed how journalist Andrew Hornery "threatened" to make her same-sex relationship public without her consent.

Rebel Wilson has for the first time revealed how journalist Andrew Hornery "threatened" to reveal she was in a same-sex relationship, saying she was unable to share the news with her friends and family in her own time.

The actor, who hails from Western Sydney, had been in a same-sex relationship with fashion and jewellery designer Ramona Agruma, and learned the Sydney Morning Herald columnist was about to spill the beans on them.

Pre-empting the move, Wilson shared a photo of herself and Agruma on Instagram, saying, “I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince … but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess.”

“Obviously, my relationship with Ramona is something that I wasn’t hiding in any way – it wasn’t a secret,” she told The Australian in an exclusive interview.

“But coming out in a same-sex relationship, there are levels to telling people. You tell your close family and your friends and not everybody. Across our two families not everybody is as accepting as what you’d hoped for, and we were trying to be respectful to those people and tell them in our own way. Basically, with the situation where a journalist is threatening to out you, you’ve got to hurry and some people we didn’t get a chance to tell before it came out publicly. And that’s not ideal.

“It was just a hard few days, especially for my partner who’s not used to being in the public eye and not used to having to deal with stuff like that. It was probably more harmful for her in many respects. But to me, in 2022, love is love. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal and that we should kind of be forced to make an announcement about it. But that happened.”

Wilson, 42, famous for films such as Bridesmaids, Pitch Perfect and Senior Year, has taken on her first dramatic role in an independent British film, The Almond and the Seahorse, screening in the British Film Festival.

The story is about two women, Sarah and Toni, whose partners have traumatic brain injuries. Wilson plays archaeologist Sarah, whose husband has sustained TBI as a result of a tumour being removed. Cast opposite her is Charlotte Gainsbourg as Toni, whose partner Gwen also has TBI from a car accident 15 years earlier.

In the film the two women share a bond and have an emotional sexual relationship as they struggle to deal with their partners’ illnesses.

Rebel Wilson stars in The Almond and the Seahorse.

It was Wilson’s first on-screen kiss with a woman.

“Oh, yeah, well, no pressure!” she said. “I was very nervous that day. Oh God, the first woman I’m going to kiss is the iconic Charlotte Gainsbourg. She’s obviously done much racier (roles), so I didn’t know how it was going to go …

“But Charlotte is so professional and great to work with and it was good. Obviously, it’s never very romantic kissing anybody on set, but it was definitely a cool experience. I kind of wish it went further in the film, but it’s more about their emotional connection, because those two characters are both going through similar things with their partners and needing an escape from that.”