How rapper FKA Twigs emerged in Rebel Wilson’s defamation fight
Rebel Wilson has made an explosive claim in court that her concerns about a film producer intensified after UK-based singer-songwriter and actor FKA Twigs told her about her own “disturbing” experience of bullying and harassment from the same manager.
Wilson, 46, is defending a Federal Court defamation lawsuit brought against him by Charlotte MacInnes, 27, the lead actress in the Australian musical film. Debt. The film marked Wilson’s directorial debut.
Wilson faces separate lawsuits in Australia and the United States from the film’s international co-producers. DebtIncluding Amanda Ghost.
Ghost is also a songwriter and has co-written hit songs for international artists including James Blunt (You are beautiful). He is a key witness in MacInnes’ defamation lawsuit.
In a written statement released by the Federal Court on Friday, Wilson alleges that FKA Twigs told him “some very disturbing things” about Ghost in a phone call in October 2023; this includes that he “fell out” with Ghost professionally because he believed Ghost “bullied him, harassed him, and tried to control him.”
Wilson claimed that FKA Twigs told him that Ghost “initiated unwanted sexual contact” toward her during a business trip in Miami.
He also claimed that when FKA Twigs complained to Warner Music majority owner Sir Len Blavatnik, he told her that “Ghost was trying to ruin her career by blocking the release of her last album” and that he was “bullying her in retaliation.”
Court heard Blavatnik was involved in financing Debt.
Ghost has strongly denied the allegations. FKA Twigs was not called to testify, meaning she could not be asked whether the alleged meeting with Wilson took place.
In his own statement, Ghost said he “did not attempt to block or interfere with FKA Twigs’ record deal” and that he “did not have the power to do so.”
He said any insinuation that his relationship with FKA Twigs “went beyond professionalism is false.”
“I am not sexually attracted to women and never have been,” Ghost said.
Wilson’s lawyer, Dauid Sibtain, SC, told the Federal Court this week that the alleged conversation between his client and FKA Twigs was relevant to Wilson’s state of mind at the time of key events disputed in the defamation case.
The central issue in the libel fight is whether MacInnes complained to Wilson that Ghost had harassed him during an incident at Bondi in September 2023, where the couple were bathing while wearing swimsuits. MacInnes denies making such a complaint.
In Instagram stories published between September 2024 and July 2024, Wilson claimed that MacInnes “complained to me as the director that Ghost was asking him to take baths and showers and it was making him uncomfortable.”
He claimed MacInnes later “changed his story” to secure career opportunities, including a record deal through Ghost. The young actor and singer rejects this claim.
Neither MacInnes nor Ghost were named in the initial story, but it did contain identifying information, including an image of MacInnes.
There is no dispute that Ghost and MacInnes shared a bathroom while wearing their swimsuits on September 5, 2023.
The women say this was in response to a medical incident in which Ghost reacted to cold water after swimming at Bondi Beach. At the time, they were staying in a rented Bondi flat during rehearsals. Debt.
It is also indisputable that Wilson called MacInnes on September 7, 2023, before texting Ghost: “Charlotte says everything is fine. It’s not that she felt personally uncomfortable, she just meant ‘it was an awkward situation’.”
However, Wilson brought up the alleged complaint about the bathroom incident again in October 2023. MacInnes’ lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, claims he did so to “make a profit” amid a commercial dispute with the film’s producers rather than to protect a young actor, a claim Wilson denies.
The defamation case continues on May 8.
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