Rebel Wilson reveals 20 years of self-loathing sparked her 40lbs weight loss

Hollywood superstar Rebel Wilson’s staggering 40lbs weight loss was sparked by 20 years of self-loathing.

The Pitch Perfect actress, 40, feels ‘so sad for herself’ she allowed her unhappiness to manifest for two decades and admits she’s now found contentment for the first time since her teens – and wants to become a mum.

However, the Australian star believes the backlash her dramatic weight loss has received is sexist, claiming a male actor would be ‘given an Oscar’, rather than trolling, for transforming their body.

Rebel said: ‘I wasn’t loving myself in the way that I should from 20 to 40 – that’s 20 years.

‘I feel so sad that I did that to myself, just not loving yourself in the right way.’

Speaking to Ant Middleton in his Sky One series Straight Talking, which sees the pair take on a journey of discovery in Mexico, Rebel gets emotional when explaining why she can’t fully celebrate her new figure.

She says: ‘It’s hard because I was so self-confident and don’t want to project a message to people that girls can’t be happy with themselves at bigger, plus sizes, because I was living the life.’

Rebel has documented her lifestyle overhaul on social media over the past year, revealing her fitness, diet and motivational secrets.

But her new slender frame hasn’t been accepted by all. Indeed, Rebel admits the trolling she’s received has been hard to take.

She explains: ‘People go “you’re not the same, you’re not funny anymore”, and I’m like, “screw you guys”.

After host Ant, 40, points out US actor Matthew McConaughey was lauded for losing 3.5 stone for his role in 2013 movie Dallas Buyers club,

Rebel replied: ‘Yeah, and they’re like “give him an Oscar”. But when women do it, it’s like “how dare she?” Or “she’s trying to get a man.”

Rebel began to put on weight when she was approaching her 20s, admitting she added 25 kilos when she went to college.

She was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), which triggers issues with hormonal imbalances and metabolism, and Rebel says her condition coupled with an unhealthy diet and ‘comfort and emotional eating’ meant she would struggle to keep off the pounds.

Rebel explains: ‘I’d eat with any emotion. If I was stressed or had exams coming up.

‘But then I’d also eat if I was really happy, like I went out on an awesome night and had a great time.

‘Other people would just go home and go to bed but I’ll be like “what am I going to do? I’ll just eat these chips and then go to bed”.’

She says learning calorific meals were not ‘treats’ was a big part of her weight-loss journey.

‘What I realise is that, it wasn’t treating myself eating 2,000 calories for dessert, that’s not treating myself, that is putting toxins in my body that I don’t need. Is it momentary comfort? Yes. But the next hour it’s fat and it’s not healthy for you.’

Rebel admits her size helped her land coveted comedy roles which shaped her career, including ‘Fat Amy’ in the Pitch Perfect franchise.

‘I start gaining all this weight and I’m like, you know what’s good for bigger girls? Comedy,’ she explains.

‘I’m fatter now, I’m getting more laughs, people want to pay me millions of dollars then to be hilarious.

‘There is a philosophy that people don’t like laughing at good looking people, they just don’t. They normally want to sleep with good looking people. But funny looking people they want to laugh at.’

However, her success has meant she’s been ‘pigeon-holed’ as a plus-sized actress, saying Hollywood execs ‘want me to play Fat Amy in multiple movies and call the character something a bit different.’

She now hopes to expand her acting CV and take on more serious roles, but admits she has a lot to prove to distance herself from comedy roles which turned her into one of the world’s bankable stars.

The Bridesmaids star also hopes to start a family with boyfriend Jacob Busch, freezing her eggs in case she experiences complications with pregnancy.

She labelled 2020 her ‘year of health’, but 2019, when she met her billionaire partner, was her ‘year of love’.

Rebel took the unusual step of accepting a date with anyone who asked her in a bid to find Mr Right.

She explains: ‘I did an experiment where I dated anyone who asked me out. Anyone who asked me out, I had to say ‘yes’. It was part of the rules of the year – not that I told people this would be happening.

‘I just had to give lots of people a chance and then I learned lots about myself.’

Her desire to find love was sparked by her loneliness in Hollywood.

She added: ‘I realised, ‘What’s the use of winning awards and earning the millions of dollars if you’ve got nobody to share it with?’

‘You don’t think about that at first, you just think about “I’ve got to climb the ladder and be great at my job” and then there’s nights where you have a movie premiere and you’re just loving it and there’s thousands of people and you just go home by yourself to your hotel room, which is usually pretty luxurious, but that’s no fun.’

Ant Middleton & Rebel Wilson: Straight Talking will be available on Sky One and streaming service Now TV on January 14.