Rebel Wilson details the real reason she lost 80lbs, why she wrote about 'degrading' Sacha Baron Cohen saga and her fears about coming out

Rebel Wilson has opened up about her reasons for writing the bombshell claims about Sacha Baron Cohen and the motivation for her 80 pound weight loss.

The actress, 44, appeared on Loose Women on Thursday, where she was interviewed by Judi Love about her new memoir, Rebel Rising.

Rebel spoke to Judi about her motivations to lose weight, after she shed 80 pounds by switching up her diet and doing more high intensity exercise.

She said she 'didn't think being bigger stopped me from anything', but that she felt 'ashamed' of her unhealthy eating habits.

Rebel Wilson has opened up about her reasons for writing the bombshell claims about Sacha Baron Cohen and the motivation for her 80 pound weight loss  

The actress, 44, appeared on Loose Women on Thursday, where she was interviewed by Judi Love about her new memoir, Rebel Rising (pictured)

But she added that she worried that by losing weight she would lose her 'pigeonhole' and feared that she would then 'lose my career'.

However, she explained that it was her desire to have kids that was the trigger, saying: 'I do believe in body positivity and beauty in any shape and size. 

'Didn't think being bigger stopped me from anything but what I was ashamed of was, these unhealthy eating behaviours, which was basically normally late at night by myself. 

'What really motivated me, it was actually not for me, not for my own physical appearance or health, but it was really when I went to see a fertility doctor and he said that if I was healthier, I'd have a much better chance of having a child.”

She added: 'I guess logically, I knew at the time I, you know, struggled with obesity and, ‘Do I change my health for the better?’ but then I’d lose this pigeonhole I had in the business and I might lose my career.'

Rebel revealed in November 2020 that she had hit her 'goal weight', but assured fans that her focus was purely about 'being healthy' rather than the figure on the scales. 

In regards to how she achieved her weight loss, she focused on becoming more active by walking and doing high-intensity interval training (HIIT) with her personal trainer.

She also switched her carb-heavy diet - where she revealed she was eating around 3,000 calories a day - for high protein alternatives where she would no longer be left feeling hungry. 

Rebel spoke about her motivations to lose weight, after she shed 80 pounds by switching up her diet and doing more high intensity exercise (pictured in 2023 left and in 2014 right)

She said she 'didn't think being bigger stopped me from anything', but that she felt 'ashamed' of her unhealthy eating habits 

She added that she worried that by losing weight she would lose her 'pigeonhole' and feared that she would then 'lose my career' (pictured in 2021) 

Rebel's memoir has hit the headlines after she made several claims against her former Grimsby co-star, Sacha, 52, accusing him of inappropriate on set behaviour.

In the book, Rebel says she 'rues the day' she met the actor, who she had described as her 'idol', first meeting at a dinner party hosted by Little Britain star Matt Lucas.

A year later Sacha offered her a role in 2016 film Grimsby as Dawn, the wife of his character Nobby.

Explaining why she wrote about the experience, Rebel said she had wanted to help others and to also release the 'shame' she had over the ordeal.

She explained: 'I just wanted to write about it because it was the worst experience in my career and I write about it, to try to help the industry. 

'Also, to release some of the shame that I had, that I was in a situation where it wasn't great for my self-worth.'

Rebel's memoir has hit the headlines after she made several claims against her former Grimsby co-star, Sacha, 52, accusing him of inappropriate on set behaviour (pictured together in the film)

Explaining why she wrote about the experience, Rebel said she had wanted to help others and to also release the 'shame' she had over the ordeal 

She admitted: 'I felt humiliated, I felt degraded, as a woman and as an overweight woman.'

Ahead of her memoir's release, Rebel named Sacha as the celebrity responsible for making threats over the book after which his representatives hit back.

Taking to Instagram to confirm the identity, she wrote: 'I will not be silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers. The a****** I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is: Sacha Baron Cohen.'

In the wake of her statement, Sacha spoke out to TMZ via representatives, saying: 'While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence...

'[With] contemporaneous documents, film footage, and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.'

In the wake of her statement, Sacha spoke out to TMZ via representatives, saying: 'While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence...' (pictured in 2018)

The book was published in the US last month, and features a chapter titled Sacha Baron Cohen And Other A**holes, where Rebel makes the claims about his alleged behaviour during the filming of Grimsby.

However the UK copies feature the wording crudely blacked out due to what Rebel brands 'peculiarities' of English law.

In response to the book's UK release, Sacha's legal team has deemed this decision by publishers HarperCollins a vindication, following the creator's strong denial of Rebel's claims.

'HarperCollins did not fact check this chapter in the book prior to publication and took the sensible but terribly belated step of deleting Rebel Wilson's defamatory claims once presented with evidence that they were false,' the statement, presented in Deadline, said.

'Printing falsehoods is against the law in the UK and Australia; this is not a ''peculiarity'' as Ms Wilson said, but a legal principle that has existed for many hundreds of years.

The book was published in the US last month, and features a chapter titled Sacha Baron Cohen And Other A**holes, where Rebel makes the claims about his alleged behaviour during the filming of Grimsby  

However the UK copies feature the wording crudely blacked out due to what Rebel brands 'peculiarities' of English law 

'This is a clear victory for Sacha Baron Cohen and confirms what we said from the beginning – that this is demonstrably false.'

After a redacted edition was finally published, publisher HarperCollins confirmed to MailOnline that details had been removed.

They told MailOnline: 'The book contains some redactions in chapter 23 on pages 216, 217, 218 and 221, as well as an explanatory note at the beginning of the chapter.'

After the allegations were detailed in the US version of the book, Cohen's spokesperson said: 'While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence...

'Including contemporaneous documents, film footage, and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.'

The UK version includes a reference to 'the worst experience of my professional life. An incident that left me feeling bullied, humiliated and compromised... 

'It can't be printed here due to the peculiarities of the law in England and Wales.'

Rebel said her aim was not to cancel Sacha with her recollections in the memoir, but to retell an experience which made her feel 'completely disrespected, which led to me treating myself with even more disrespect by eating in an extremely unhealthy way' 

The rest of the page is redacted, with black lines also removing shorter details elsewhere in the chapter.

The Australian version also includes black lines removing the details in the chapter, with HarperCollins Australia telling the Guardian that 'for legal reasons we have redacted one chapter in the Australian/New Zealand edition and included an explanatory note accordingly. 

'That chapter is a very small part of a much bigger story and we’re excited for readers to know Rebel’s story when the book is released, on Wednesday 8 May.' 

The Bridesmaids star said her aim was not to cancel Sacha with her recollections in the memoir, but to retell an experience which made her feel 'completely disrespected, which led to me treating myself with even more disrespect by eating in an extremely unhealthy way'.   

During her Loose Women interview on Thursday, Rebel also talked about sharing intimate details about her life in the book, Rebel discussed her journey with her sexuality, after getting engaged to fiancée, Ramona Agruma.

She admitted that she was 'forced' to come out to the world and that she had been 'very nervous' to tell her mother.

Rebel recalled: 'I announced I was in a relationship with a woman on social media. But, there's a bit of a story though because an Australian journalist was threatening to essentially out me… So, I was forced to kind of make it public.

Talking about sharing intimate details about her life in the book, Rebel discussed her journey with her sexuality, after getting engaged to fiancée, Ramona Agruma (pictured together) 

'Not that it was something I was hiding, it was just something that I was slowly telling people because it's a bit of a shock when you've only been dating men to all of a sudden say, "I'm in a relationship with a woman".'

Rebel and her fashion designer girlfriend were forced to publicly announce that they'd been dating in June 2022 by a journalist, despite some of their family members not even being aware of their relationship.

Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Hornery himself revealed he gave Rebel 'two days to comment' upon learning of their relationship.

He later reflected in his column: 'Big mistake. Wilson opted to gazump the story.'

The Pitch Perfect star came out with a gushing Instagram post in which she introduced her girlfriend of six months.

Sharing a loved-up snap of them, she wrote: 'I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince... but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess'.

Rebel spoke about how she told her mum, Sue Bownds, the news, telling Judi: 'I remember being very nervous to tell my mom and then I had to tell her because she was flying over to LA and she was gonna meet Ramona. 

'I had to tell her and I'm like, "Mom, you know, Ramona, who you heard on the phone?" I go, "She's not just my friend. She's my girlfriend". 

She admitted that she was 'forced' to come out to the world and that she had been 'very nervous' to tell her mother, Sue Bownds (pictured)

Rebel and her fashion designer girlfriend were forced to publicly announce that they'd been dating in June 2022 by a journalist, despite some of their family members not even being aware of their relationship 

Rebel explained that she had realised that she was attracted to women while watching a tennis player at Wimbledon, saying it 'opened up my heart'

Rebel and Ramona met in 2021 before they began dating and announced their engagement in February last year (pictured this February) 

'She was like, "Oh, that's great darling! Now what colour should I paint this side of the fence? Olive Green? Brown?"'

Rebel explained that she had realised that she was attracted to women while watching an unnamed tennis player at Wimbledon, saying it 'opened up my heart'.

She said: 'I did have a situationship, I guess you could say, that’s what the young people call it… With a professional female tennis player. 

'I was at Wimbledon and I was watching this woman play and I was like, "Whoa, like, she's really good at tennis" but like I was feeling stuff.

'That experience kind of, I guess, opened up my heart in a way. I kind of described it as like, when you open up a can of tennis balls and you're like, ‘Oh!’ and I felt all these feelings and then I really wanted to explore it.'

Previously, Rebel had only publicly dated men and admitted in her memoir that she never felt fully invested in those relationships.

She wrote: 'Sometimes, when I was dating men, people would even comment. They're like, "God, Rebel, you can take them or leave them. You weren't that ever invested."'

'And then, here was somebody where [I] felt so invested in and even thought at one point, "Oh, I could give up my career for this person, travel around the world on the tennis circuit".' 

'I describe it as cracking open my heart. Like you could open a fresh can of tennis balls…that's what it did to me. 

'And, I guess, when I saw people write love songs or poetry about love, I was like, "Oh, that's nice". But I don't think I'd ever understood that until I felt that for a person.”

'It could have been that just the guys I was dating just weren't the one. Or that, also, I wasn't open to intimacy that much back then, so I never allowed myself to feel real feelings. And then the first time was with the tennis player.'

Rebel and Ramona met in 2021 before they began dating and announced their engagement in February last year.

Rebel and Ramona welcomed their first child, Royce Lillian, via surrogate in November 2022. 

She told Judi that she now has ‘two loves of her life’ after becoming a mum and gushed: 'I've got an amazing partner and now I have a gorgeous baby Royce. 

'IVF, the process I went through is an emotional rollercoaster. One day you're happy and one day you're really sad.'

She explained that it was her desire to have kids that was the trigger, and she and Ramona went on to welcome their first child, Royce Lillian, via surrogate in November 2022 (pictured)