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Court orders Rebel Wilson to repay £2.6 million from defamation case

Rebel Wilson (Credit: AAP)
Rebel Wilson (Credit: AAP)

Rebel Wilson has been ordered to repay $4.1 million (£2.6 million) to magazine publisher Bauer Media, after it appealed against a defamation case.

The Australian actress had been awarded $4.7 million in supposed lost earnings in a landmark court case last year.

But she’ll now have to pay back most of the money, plus interest and legal costs, after an appeal court overturned the judgement.

Wilson claimed that the magazine Woman’s Day had implied she had lied about her upbringing and back story in an article it published published in 2015.

Headlined ‘Separating fact from fiction: Will the real Rebel Wilson please stand up?’, the article suggested that the actress had ‘added a touch of ‘fantasy’ to the life she led before becoming a household name’, and that rather than a rough upbringing she has previously spoken about, she in fact had a ‘very normal, upper-middle-class upbringing’.

Wilson said that as a result of the article, she lost out on several lucrative film roles.

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Rebel Wilson, left, and Anna Kendrick in a scene from “Pitch Perfect 3.” (Quantrell D. Colbert/Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Rebel Wilson, left, and Anna Kendrick in a scene from “Pitch Perfect 3.” (Quantrell D. Colbert/Universal Pictures via AP)

But the appeal court in Victoria ruled that she had failed to prove that the losses in earnings she had claimed during the case amounted to what she was eventually awarded.

The sum she will receive now will be $600,000, with Wilson having to pay 80 percent of Bauer’s legal costs too.

She had originally pledged to donate the $4.7 million to charities and the Australian film industry.

Tweeting following the verdict, she said: “That’s now $4 million less going to less fortunate Australians and leaves a billionaire corporation, proven guilty of malicious defamation, being able to get away with their seriously harmful acts for a very low pay day.

“But somehow the Court of Appeal have been absolutely flippant with regards to my economic loss, not to mention my overall hurt and distress at having to stand up to these bullies.”

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