Ever since her star-making turn in “Bridesmaids,” Rebel Wilson has been an unmissable fixture in the comedy scene.
The Australian-born actor, writer and producer has stolen the show in movies like “The Hustle,” “Senior Year,” and the “Pitch Perfect” trilogy.
In her memoir “Rebel Rising,” Wilson opens up about the journey that took her from a fractured home in Sydney to silver screen success.
She described the book as a “very deeply personal memoir” during an April 1 appearance on the TODAY Show.
“I’m feeling a mix of anxiety, because to be so vulnerable and to put it all out there, it does take a bit of courage to do that,” she said on the show. “Now I guess it’s just releasing it out into the world, which I guess is kind of cathartic in a way because it’s just like, ‘OK, here it all is.”
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Beyond her career highs, Wilson shares vulnerable, yet characteristically funny, anecdotes about her weight loss journey, fertility challenges, and exploring her 𝓈ℯ𝓍uality.
Along the way, she’s standing up to industry “a——,” writing the parts she’s always wanted to play and inspiring young people to be their authentic selves.
Here are some of the biggest revelations — or Rebel-ations, if you will — from “Rebel Rising.”
Wilson says that she has been mistaken for Adele
Wilson shares that she was occasionally mistaken for Adele while in England.
“There was a moment when she was bigger, and some people would confuse us for one another. I’d be in England and people would come up and say, ‘Oh, I love your new album,’” Wilson writes.
She theorizes that the singer “hates” her due to the comparison.
“I am assuming, because to be fair I’ve never asked her (she always quickly turns away from me at the few events where I’ve seen her, as if my fatness might rub off on her if I were near her for more than thirty seconds), that she didn’t like being compared to ‘Fat Amy.’”
TODAY.com has reached out to Adele for comment and hasn’t heard back at the time of publication.
She lost her virginity in her mid 30s
Wilson describes herself as a “late bloomer” when it comes to 𝓈ℯ𝓍uality.
According to Wilson, until she published her memoir, nobody in her life knew that she lost her virginity at age 35.
“Imagine how I’m going to look now that everyone knows I was cherry-popped at the ripe old age of thirty-five,” she jokes.
Though she played 𝓈ℯ𝓍ually liberated characters like Fat Amy from “Pitch Perfect” on screen, she was too intimidated to pursue people in real life.
“When it came to physical intimacy, I was terrified,” she writes.
She also worried that potential 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual partners wouldn’t find her attractive due to her weight.
After her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Wilson was inspired to “feel the fear and just do it.”
She lost her virginity to a man named Mickey, whom she had been introduced to by a “Pitch Perfect” costar.
“Micks, I know this might be news to you if you are reading this, but yes, I lost my virginity to you,” she quips.
She alleges that Sacha Baron Cohen asked her to perform a 𝓈ℯ𝓍 act on him
In a chapter titled “Sacha Baron Cohen and Other Assholes,” Wilson writes about her negative experiences with Cohen while filming “The Brothers Grimsby.”
Though she was initially excited to work with Cohen, whom she refers to as “SBC” throughout the chapter, Wilson alleges that his on-set behavior towards her was inappropriate.
“It felt like every time I’d speak to SBC, he’d mention that he wanted me to go naked in a future scene,” Wilson writes.
Despite telling him she didn’t “do nudity,” she says that Cohen continued to press her.
“It seemed to me he could see that the notion of this made me uncomfortable, so HE kept pushing for me to do this,” she writes.
Wilson cites other instances of inappropriate behavior, such as Cohen yelling, “Do a Sharon Stone and show your vagina” at her during a take.
She also alleges that Cohen asked her to perform a 𝓈ℯ𝓍 act on him, ostensibly for the film.
“’OK, well, we’re gonna film this extra scene,’ SBC says. Then he pulls his pants down while his friends stand there awkwardly recording the whole thing on their iPhones. SBC says very matter-of-factly: ‘OK, now I want you to stick your finger up my a–.’”
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Wilson refused, though Cohen continued pushing.
“I just kept saying no. I wanted to get out of there, so I finally compromised: I slapped him on the ass and improvised a few lines as the character,” she writes.
Though she immediately notified her agent, Wilson says she was told to “be professional and finish the film.”
“It felt like SBC had 𝓈ℯ𝓍ually harassed me on the set of ‘Grimsby’,” she writes.
After “The Brothers Grimsby” wrapped, Wilson alleges that she received a phone call from “SBC’s associate” warning her about the consequences of not publicly supporting the 2016 film.
“‘You know there’s only really five big movie studios in Hollywood, and we can ruin your reputation with all of them,’” Wilson recalls him saying.
Wilson says that “canceling anybody” wasn’t her motivation for sharing the story.
“I’m sharing my story now because the more women talk about things like this, hopefully the less it happens,” she writes.
More recently, Wilson alleged that Cohen tried to stop her from writing about him in “Rebel Rising.”
“I will not be bullied or silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers,” Wilson wrote on her Instagram story on Mar. 24.
A representative for Cohen told NBC News that Wilson’s allegations were “demonstrably false.”
“While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including contemporaneous documents, film footage, and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of ‘The Brothers Grimsby,’” the representative told NBC News.
Wilson describes her complicated relationship with her father
Wilson, who grew up in Sydney, Australia, shares that her father was often abusive to her, her mother and her siblings until her mother kicked him out of the house in 1997.
“She’d finally mustered the courage after all those awful years and wised up to the fact that she deserved more,” Wilson writes.
Wilson maintained a relatively distant relationship with her father until he passed away in 2013 from a heart attack.
“Even though we had complicated feelings toward my father, it was so tragic,” she writes. “He’d literally just cleaned up his whole life, he was trying, and now he was dead.”
The funeral brought emotional catharsis — Wilson says she cried “like I’ve never cried before” — and another bombshell: her father allegedly ran drugs for the famous Australian crime baron Bob Trimbole.
Despite their rocky relationship, Wilson slipped a touching letter to her father into his pocket before his burial.
“May I take from you the good and learn from her mistakes,” Wilson wrote in the letter. “I love you and I will truly miss you.”
Rebel isn’t her legal name
Her mother wanted to name her Rebel after a little girl who sang at their wedding, but her father vetoed the name.
Her legal name is Melanie Elizabeth Bownds.
Wilson opens up about her 𝓈ℯ𝓍uality
According to Wilson, figuring out her 𝓈ℯ𝓍uality was a long journey.
“Sure, deep down inside I never thought I was 100 percent straight. But I never knew what to call that. I just ignored the not-straight part of me,” she writes.
After only dating men, Wilson writes that her first relationship with a woman was a “complicated long-distance thing” with an unnamed professional tennis player.
Quipping that “labels are for packages,” Wilson resists defining her 𝓈ℯ𝓍uality.
“I don’t think of myself as ‘gay.’ I don’t really want to define myself. I know that can be confusing to some people because I am a woman in a relationship with another woman. I just believe that 𝓈ℯ𝓍uality is much more nuanced and complicated than what society makes it out to be,” she explains.
She shared her struggles with emotional eating
Wilson opened up about her lifelong battles with food and eating.
“I emotionally eat. I overeat. I’m addicted to sugar,” she writes.
She sometimes resorted to extreme measures, like pouring dish soap on discarded junk food, to curb her cravings.
“I know that at 39 years old, I’ve trashed my body with junk food, I guess because deep down I think of myself as trash,” she writes. ”
She has been diagnosed with IBS and PCOS
Wilson writes that she was diagnosed at 21 with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a hormonal condition that can cause acne, weight gain, excessive body hair and fertility problems.
Wilson was also diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and is “mildly intolerant” to gluten and dairy.
Her weight loss journey was partially motivated by fertility challenges
At a consultation to freeze her eggs, a fertility doctor told Wilson that she’d have “a much better chance” of having viable eggs if she were “healthy.”
During what she calls her “year of health,” Wilson exercised regularly and focused on healthy eating.
After reaching her goal weight at the end of the year, Wilson began fertility treatments before harvesting her eggs.
Wilson said she only had one viable embryo at the end of the process.
Due to her PCOS diagnosis, her fertility doctor recommended that she use a surrogate to carry her embryo.
Wilson’s daughter, Royce Lillian Elizabeth Wilson, was born via surrogate in November 2022.
“It has taken a lot to bring little Roycie into the world — over three years of trying, five egg-harvesting cycles — but now she’s here, and she is absolutely perfect,” Wilson writes.
Wilson shares how she met fiancée Ramona Agruma
Wilson and Agruma were introduced to each other over text by a mutual friend in November 2021.
Though the relationship began long-distance, their first in-person date quickly got steamy.
“We just … connect,” Wilson writes. “Yes, I’m nervous, but it doesn’t feel weird. It just feels beautiful.”
Though the couple initially tried to keep their relationship private, journalist Andrew Hornery told Wilson’s publicist that he would publish details of Wilson and Agruma’s relationship in The Sydney Morning Herald if she didn’t “give them an exclusive comment.”
Rather than let Hornery break the news, Wilson and Agruma decided to publicize their relationship on their own terms in anInstagram post.
“I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,” Wilson captioned the photo of the pair.
The original story Hornery published since been taken down. Hornery responded via an article with the headline, “I made mistakes over Rebel Wilson, and will learn from them.”
“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,” he said.
Following the debacle, The Australian Press Council deemed in a ruling on its website in October 2022 that the Sydney Morning Herald breached two of its general principles, including avoiding intruding into a person’s “reasonable expectations of privacy” unless it’s in the interest of the public and avoiding causing “offence, distress or prejudice, or a substantial risk to health or safety” unless it’s in the interest of the public.
Both Wilson and Agruma are huge fans of Disney, and the couple got engaged at Disneyland in February 2023.
“Ramona is my Disney princess. She’s beautiful. She’s heroic. She’s smart. She’s kind,” Wilson writes.
Wilson also reveals that Agruma was present for daughter Royce’s birth.
“I cut the umbilical cord, and then, as she’s being weighed and measured, she grabs one of my fingers with her tiny left hand and one of Ramona’s fingers with her tiny right hand. She opens her eyes, and she looks at us. We’re a family now,” she writes.
