Hollywood actor Rebel Wilson has forcefully denied accusations of evidence-dumping and dishonesty during her second day in the witness box at Australia's Federal Court in Sydney, where she is defending a defamation lawsuit brought by fellow Australian actress Charlotte MacInnes.
MacInnes, the 27-year-old lead actor of the musical comedy film The Deb — which Wilson directed as her debut behind the camera — alleges that a series of Wilson's Instagram posts in 2024 and 2025 falsely suggested she had retracted a sexual harassment complaint in order to advance her acting and music career. Wilson maintains that MacInnes had confided feeling uncomfortable after the film's co-producer Amanda Ghost invited her to share a bath together in swimwear following a medical episode at Bondi Beach, Sydney, in September 2023. MacInnes denies ever making such a complaint.
The courtroom exchanges grew heated on Wednesday when MacInnes' barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC challenged Wilson over her inability to produce certain text messages requested by the plaintiff's legal team. Wilson explained her phone had been stolen in London and that some message chains had not been backed up. Chrysanthou pressed the point sharply: "Are you sure your phone was stolen and you didn't just dump it in a park?" Wilson's lawyer objected, but not before Wilson responded: "That is absolutely outrageous." Wilson also defended a pointed text she had sent MacInnes in May 2023 — criticising the younger actor for failing to respond to a theatre invitation — calling it a single reasonable message rather than bullying behaviour.
The court also heard from earlier testimony that Wilson's US lawyer had engaged a crisis public relations firm called The Agency Group, which was accused of creating smear websites portraying co-producer Ghost as a sex trafficker. The same firm has been linked in separate proceedings to a campaign against actor Blake Lively on behalf of her co-star Justin Baldoni. Wilson denied authorising or even knowing about those websites, despite metadata on a source document listing her company as author. She suggested anyone could have used the company name. Chrysanthou accused Wilson of lying and of exploiting MacInnes' alleged complaint as leverage in a separate dispute with co-producers, a characterisation Wilson firmly rejected, insisting she had raised the matter out of genuine concern.
Wilson is expected to face further questioning about an allegation in MacInnes' sworn affidavit that Wilson orchestrated a cyber-attack on her social media accounts shortly after legal proceedings were filed in September, which led to a nude photo of MacInnes being leaked to her contacts. That claim had not yet been tested in open court as of Wednesday. Wilson arrived at court visibly distracted, telling reporters that her wife is heavily pregnant and their second child could be born at any moment. The trial continues.