Australian Hollywood star Rebel Wilson has apologised for claiming she is the first plus-sized woman to be a lead actress in a romantic comedy, saying her comments were “not only wrong but also incredibly hurtful”.

The Pitch Perfect star — who made international headlines recently for her successful defamation case in Australia against several magazines — said in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres that she was “proud to be the first-ever plus-sized girl to be the star of a romantic comedy”.

Wilson was promoting her upcoming role in the movie Isn’t It Romantic.

There was a backlash on social media to her remarks, with users pointing out that other plus-sized actresses including Queen Latifah, Ricki Lake, and Mo’Nique had starred in such films.

Wilson was also criticised for blocking some Twitter users who complained.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Wilson wrote that she was “deeply sorry”.

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“I neglected to show the proper respect to those who climbed this mountain before me,” she said.

“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 and 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.”

Wilson was awarded Aus$4.5 million ($3.3 million) in damages against Bauer Media last year over articles claiming she lied about her age and background to further her career — the largest defamation win in Australian legal history.

But Bauer appealed, arguing the size of the settlement set a dangerous precedent and there were errors of law in the judgement.

Wilson was earlier this year ordered to return most of the payout after it was slashed by a court. She has lodged an application to appeal the decision.

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