Rebel Wilson has prevailed in a defamation case brought by Charlotte MacInnes, the lead actress in Wilson’s directorial debut, “The Deb.”

Judge Elizabeth Raper of the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney on Wednesday dismissed MacInnes’ claims of defamation and breach of trust and ordered him to pay Wilson’s legal costs.

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 to benefit her career.

The dispute centered on the events of September 5, 2023, when MacInnes and Ghost went swimming at Bondi Beach before returning to the Sydney apartment where they were staying.

Ghost said he suffered a severe reaction to the cold water. Later, MacInnes and Ghost entered a bathroom together while still wearing their swimsuits.

Wilson maintained that MacInnes told him the next day that the situation had made her uncomfortable and later recanted that story. MacInnes denied making any such allegation and said she had not felt uncomfortable.

“To say that the circumstances surrounding how they got to the bathroom are unusual would be an understatement,” Raper wrote.

The judge determined that any of the four posts conveyed only one of the meanings alleged by MacInnes. That meaning, contained in Wilson’s Sept. 23, 2024, post, was that MacInnes had changed her account of feeling uncomfortable about what happened in the bathroom.

Raper ruled that the meaning was not defamatory and found that a claim that someone had changed their story would not necessarily make an average person think less of them.

The judge also made two alternative conclusions. It ruled that MacInnes had not shown that the publication caused, or was likely to cause, serious harm to his reputation. Furthermore, he found that Wilson had established that the meaning conveyed was substantially true.

Raper found on the balance of probabilities that MacInnes had become uncomfortable with the situation, had said something about it to Wilson the next day and then changed her account.

The judge called the accounts given by MacInnes and Ghost inconsistent and called both women “unreliable historians.”

Raper discovered that Ghost, then 49, had placed MacInnes, then 25, in an awkward and stressful position by demanding that the younger actor babysit her during the episode.

The ruling did not determine that Ghost’s behavior was sexual or that sexual harassment had occurred. Raper explicitly said that the parties had not asked the court to decide whether the conduct had a sexualized dimension.

Instead, the court found that MacInnes had complained of feeling uncomfortable in a situation that could be explained without reference to sexual harassment.

MacInnes had argued that Wilson’s posts exposed her to online abuse and damaged her professional standing. Raper found no evidence that the posts had deprived her of work or other professional opportunities.

The ruling noted that MacInnes signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records in October 2025 and subsequently released two singles. His agent did not identify any specific missed opportunities due to Wilson’s posts.

MacInnes’ claim for breach of trust also failed. Raper found that MacInnes had not proven that she had filed a sexual harassment complaint, which was information she claimed Wilson had improperly disclosed. The judge also considered that the other elements required in the lawsuit had not been proven.

During closing arguments in May, MacInnes’s lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou SC, strongly attacked Wilson’s credibility. “She is a fantastic liar who has made terrible, terrible allegations about multiple people and has been discredited by her own witnesses,” Chrysanthou told the court.

Raper said at sentencing that he had serious concerns about the reliability of the evidence given by MacInnes, Ghost and Wilson. However, he accepted Wilson’s evidence on the central issue of whether MacInnes had raised his discomfort and subsequently changed his position.

The ruling refers to the Australian case of MacInnes v Wilson. Separate legal disputes involving Wilson and “The Deb” producers remain separate from the proceedings.

Following the decision, Wilson thanked the court for considering the evidence and said she was relieved the process was over. “This has been a long process and throughout it I have tried to stay firm in my values ​​and what I believed was right,” Wilson said in a statement.

Wilson also reiterated his support for “The Deb,” describing it as a film about individuality, resilience and the courage to be yourself. “Right now, I’m focused on what’s most important: my family and my job,” she said.

Wilson also addressed the ruling in an Instagram post, writing that she was “grateful that this chapter has come to its conclusion” and looked forward to returning to “what I love most, my family and my work.” He thanked “the judge and the Australian legal system” and said he has “the utmost respect” for both.