Rebel Wilson Wins Defamation Case Against 'The Deb' Co-Star Charlotte MacInnes Over Bath Incident Claims

SYDNEY — A judge in Australia's Federal Court dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought against actress and director Rebel Wilson by her own leading lady, ending one chapter of a sprawling legal battle that has surrounded the production of Wilson's directorial debut, "The Deb."

Justice Elizabeth Raper ruled on Wednesday that Charlotte MacInnes, the film's lead actress, had failed to prove her claims that Wilson defamed her through a series of Instagram posts. The judge ordered MacInnes to pay Wilson's legal costs.

What the case was about

MacInnes sued over four sets of Instagram posts published between September 2024 and July 2025. She argued that the posts portrayed her as having changed her account of an incident involving "The Deb" producer Amanda Ghost in order to benefit her career, and said the fallout had made her the target of "abuse, hatred and ridicule online" that hurt her professional prospects.

At the center of the dispute was an incident from September 2023, before the film had even completed production. MacInnes and Ghost had gone swimming at Sydney's Bondi Beach and returned to an apartment rented by the production company. According to court filings, Ghost suffered a severe physical reaction to the cold water, and the two women subsequently got into a bath together while still wearing their swimsuits to warm up.

MacInnes and Ghost maintained the moment was entirely non-sexual. In her affidavit, MacInnes said, "There was nothing sexual in any way." But Wilson claimed MacInnes had separately told her that Ghost had asked her to bathe and shower together, and that the experience had made her uncomfortable — a account Wilson said she understood to be a report of sexual harassment that, as the film's director, she felt obligated to act on.

The judge's findings

Raper found that only one of the meanings MacInnes alleged was actually conveyed by the posts: that MacInnes had changed her account of feeling uncomfortable about the bath incident. The judge ruled that statement was not defamatory, reasoning that suggesting someone changed their story would not necessarily lead an ordinary person to think less of them.

The judge made two additional findings in Wilson's favor. She ruled MacInnes had not shown the posts caused, or were likely to cause, serious harm to her reputation, and separately found that Wilson had established the conveyed meaning was substantially true. Raper also remarked on the unusual nature of the underlying episode itself, writing in her ruling that "to say that the circumstances surrounding how they came to be in the bath are unusual would be an understatement."

During the trial, Wilson defended herself against accusations that she fabricated the account, telling the court, "I am known as a truth-teller," and insisting she was simply "telling the truth." MacInnes' barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, took the opposite view in her closing argument in May, telling the court Wilson was "a fantastical liar who has made up terrible, terrible allegations about multiple people and her own witnesses have discredited her."

Wilson's reaction

Following the ruling, Wilson posted on Instagram thanking the judge and the Australian legal system for what she called a "substantial win," adding that she was looking forward to moving on from the dispute.

Part of a wider legal battle

Wednesday's ruling settles only one strand of a much larger legal conflict that has engulfed "The Deb" since before its release. Court filings indicate Wilson's relationship with the film's producers had begun deteriorating before filming even started in 2023 and worsened significantly during post-production.

In June 2024, Wilson's lawyer sent a letter to Ghost and the film's other producers, Ghost's husband Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden, containing what Ghost described in her own affidavit as "a number of seriously defamatory and false allegations of depraved sexual misconduct" against her and Cameron. Ghost said she was "appalled by the letter and the false allegations that Rebel was making." Ghost and her fellow producers have since launched their own defamation case against Wilson, which remains separate from Wednesday's ruling.

Ghost has additionally alleged that Wilson played a role in the creation of smear websites that referred to her using a comparison to Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Wilson has denied any involvement in those websites.

Wilson has also publicly claimed the producers initially withheld consent to premiere the film at the Toronto International Film Festival as retaliation for her speaking out about their conduct — a claim Ghost has disputed, saying she never sought to block the film's Toronto screening. "The Deb" ultimately did premiere at the festival in 2024, was released in Australian cinemas earlier this year, and is scheduled for release in the United States this August.

How the dispute began

The legal fight traces back to July 2024, when Ghost, Cameron and Holden filed a defamation suit against Wilson in Los Angeles after she accused them on social media of "bad behavior" during the film's production and suggested they were trying to block its Toronto premiere. Wilson filed a countersuit against the trio the following September, accusing the filmmakers of sexual misconduct, bullying and theft during production. MacInnes filed her own notice against Wilson roughly a year after the initial dispute began, formally accusing her of defamation over the social media posts naming her.

A pattern for Wilson

This is not the first time Wilson has been at the center of a high-profile defamation dispute. In 2017, she won a defamation case against publisher Bauer Media over a series of Australian magazine articles that portrayed her as a "serial liar" who had misrepresented her name, age and upbringing. A judge in that case found Bauer Media had failed to prove the claims were substantially true, and Wilson was initially awarded what was then Australia's largest-ever defamation payout, 4.5 million Australian dollars, later reduced to roughly 450,000 Australian dollars on appeal after a court found the coverage had not seriously damaged her career.

For now, Wednesday's ruling closes one front in the ongoing legal saga surrounding "The Deb," even as separate proceedings between Wilson and the film's producers continue to work their way through the courts.