Actor Rebel Wilson has apologised for her "incredibly hurtful" comments claiming she was "proud to be the first-ever plus-sized girl to be the star of a romantic comedy".
Wilson was on The Ellen Show when she made the claim about her upcoming romantic comedy Isn't It Romantic, which co-stars fellow Aussie Liam Hemsworth.
Her comments prompted applause and cheers from the Ellen audience.
But the comments didn't sit well with social media users, who pointed out that plus-sized actors such as Queen Latifah and Mo'Nique had been starring in rom-coms as far back as 2006.
Rebel Wilson has apologised after her plus-size claim copped backlash online. Source: ABACA USA
Wilson initially stood her ground and defended her comments.
She initially apologised to Mo'Nique, who told Wilson to "take a moment and know the history".
This prompted Wilson to apologise on Tuesday for her "incredibly hurtful" comments and the fact she blocked Twitter users who had attempted to correct her.
"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 wrote on Twitter.
"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."
