Rebel Wilson apologises for 'incredibly hurtful' comments about plus-size stars in rom-coms

Rebel Wilson has apologised for comments she made last week that ruffled some feathers in the film community.

While promoting the trailer for her upcoming romantic comedy Isn't It Romantic -- in which she stars opposite Liam Hemsworth -- on The Ellen Show, the 38-year-old Aussie actress said, "I'm proud to be the first-ever plus-sized girl to be the star of a romantic comedy."

Her statement was met with a round of applause on the show, but the reaction on social media was very different. Twitter users swiftly pointed out that plus-sized stars such as Queen Latifah and Mo'Nique had starred in the respective 2006 rom-coms Last Holiday and Phat Girlz.

Still, Wilson stood her ground amid the backlash, insisting on Twitter there were some "grey areas and technicalities" around what constitutes a rom-com, and proceeded to block critics on Twitter who said otherwise.  

But today Wilson was singing another tune. In a series of tweets, the actress admitted she was wrong to claim the title of "first-ever plus-sized" woman to play the lead in a romantic comedy and was "deeply sorry."

"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 tweeted.

"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," she said. "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."