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Rebel Wilson apologises after claiming to be the first plus-sized woman to star in a rom-com

The actress has responded to the backlash she received

FayesVision/WENN.com

Rebel Wilson has apologised, after she claimed to be the first plus-sized woman to star in a romantic comedy.

Last week, the actress appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she spoke about her role in the upcoming film Isn’t It Romantic with Liam Hemsworth.

Rebel told Ellen that she is the “first-ever plus-sized girl to be the star of a romantic comedy” – and her comment sparked serious backlash.

Many fans immediately tweeted Rebel, stating that her claim was incorrect as Queen Latifah and Mo’Nique had previously starred in rom-coms as plus sized women.

At first, Rebel defended her statement by saying, “It was questionable as to whether: 1. Technically those actresses were plus size when filming those movies or 2. Technically those films are (categorized)/billed as a studio rom-com with a sole lead.”

These comments enraged fans even more, and Rebel was accused of ignoring the accomplishments of African-American actresses.

Rebel has since taken to Twitter to publicly apologise for her comments, writing, “In a couple of well-intentioned moments, hoping to lift my fellow plus sized women up, I neglected to show the proper respect to those who climbed this mountain before me like Mo’Nique, Queen Latifah, Melissa McCarthy, Ricki Lake and likely many others.”

She continued, “With the help of some very compassionate and well-thought out responses from others on social media, I now realize what I said was not only wrong but also incredibly hurtful.”

“To be part of a problem I was hoping I was helping makes it that much more embarrassing & hard to acknowledge.”

“I blocked people on Twitter because I was hurting from the criticism, but those are the people I actually need to hear from more, not less. Again, I am deeply sorry.”

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