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Actress Charlotte MacInnes had accused Wilson of publicly spreading damaging comments about her
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Rebel Wilson has been cleared of accusations that she defamed a young Australian actress, a Sydney court has found
Wilson had been embroiled in an Australian defamation trial that stemmed from claims suggesting she accused The Deb actress Charlotte MacInnes of retracting a harassment complaint to advance her career, which MacInnes denied
In court on Wednesday, July 22, Justice Elizabeth Raper dismissed the case and ordered MacInnes to pay Wilson’s costs
Rebel Wilson has been cleared in her defamation trial.
The Pitch Perfect star, 46, had been embroiled in a legal battle with Charlotte MacInnes, 28, the lead actress in Wilson’s directorial debut, The Deb.
MacInnes filed a legal complaint in August, arguing that Wilson publicly spread damaging comments about her. The lawsuit concerned Instagram posts shared in 2024 and 2025 that claimed producer Amanda Ghost sexually harassed MacInnes, suggesting the latter walked back her complaint in order to better her career, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), BBC and Deadline reported.
However, on Wednesday, July 22, a court in Sydney, Australia, dismissed the claims, with Justice Elizabeth Raper saying the suggestion that MacInnes had changed her story about the incident was not defamatory, as reported by multiple outlets including the BBC and U.K. newspaper The Guardian. Raper ordered MacInnes to pay Wilson’s costs, the outlets noted.
Following the verdict, Wilson shared on Instagram that the legal process had “taught” her “a lot.”
“It has tested me, but it has also reinforced something I’ve always believed. I want to live my life standing up for what I believe is right, while continuing to create work that brings people joy,” she wrote.
In a subsequent post on her Instagram Stories, the star added that she was “grateful to the judge and the Australian legal system for the substantial win.” She said that she was “looking forward to moving on” from the matter.
PEOPLE has reached out to Charlotte MacInnes’ lawyer and the Sydney Federal Court for comment on the verdict, but didn’t immediately receive a response.
As previously reported by PEOPLE, Wilson alleged on social media that MacInnes had felt uncomfortable after sharing a bath with Ghost at an apartment in Bondi, Australia, during production of The Deb. She also alleged that the North Shore actress retracted a complaint about the producer in exchange for a record deal and a major theatre role, per ABC Australia.
As noted by the BBC, Ghost had an allergic reaction to the cold water when she and MacInnes went for a swim, prompting the pair to return to the producer’s rental apartment. Ghost had a shower while MacInnes ran a bath for her, and the actress got into the bath to warm up, with Ghost joining her shortly after. Both were wearing swimsuits.
The outlet reported that Justice Raper remarked on the bath incident when handing down her decision.
“To say that the circumstances surrounding how they came to be in the bath are unusual would be an understatement,” Raper told the court, per the BBC.
Raper also mentioned that MacInnes had failed to establish the posts had caused or were likely to cause serious harm, the outlet reported.
The trial began on April 20 when MacInnes’ legal team argued that Wilson’s comments were “malicious concoctions” and that the actress-filmmaker was a “bully.”
As reported by The Guardian, MacInnes’ barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, accused Wilson of a “complete revision of history,” and called her a “fantastical liar who has made up terrible, terrible allegations about multiple people and her own witnesses have discredited her.”
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However, Wilson denied this, describing herself as a “truth-teller,” with her barrister, David Sibtain, reiterating that his client had “no motive to lie,” per the outlet.
The legal conflict first began in 2024, when Wilson publicly accused producers of The Deb, including Ghost, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden, of misconduct tied to the film. Denying the claims, they filed a defamation lawsuit against her in the U.S. Wilson filed a countersuit, accusing them of adding unapproved fees, amounting to about $900,000 Australian dollars (almost $650,000 U.S. dollars), to themselves.
Earlier this year, Wilson attempted to get the case thrown out, but the court sided with Ghost, Cameron and Holden, which she then appealed, per Page Six. The legal battle is ongoing, after the appeals court sided again with Wilson’s adversaries.
MacInnes, meanwhile, separately sued Wilson in Australia.
Read the original article on People
