Rebel Wilson posts rare photo of mother Sue Bownds and reveals her unique career

Rebel Wilson shared a rare photo of her mother Sue Bownds and her surprising profession on Sunday.

Taking to Instagram, the 44-year-old actress posted a photo of her mum who was captured in action as a dog judge during an event in China.

‘Mum dog judging in China. I’m glad the Bichon one,’ Rebel captioned.

Sue has been a professional dog handler since 1980, and often travels the world for the job.

Previously speaking about her childhood, Rebel said her family would often travel around Australia for dog shows.

‘My childhood was full of weekend adventures at dog shows all around Australia and my family had a business selling pet products out of a caravan – such as leads, treats and the best styling equipment available,’ she said in a statement.

With a shared love of canines, Rebel went on to host the Australian TV show Pooch Perfect in 2020 on Channel Seven.

The series saw ten professional dog groomers go head to head in a series of themed challenges.

It comes after Rebel lost her legal battle with her former Grimsby co-star Sacha Baron Cohen to ensure an intact version of her book Rebel Rising is published in Australia.

Instead, a redacted version of the 44-year-old’s memoir will be published in Australia and New Zealand, in which the entire chapter where she accused Cohen of inappropriate onset behaviour will be blacked out.

Although the book has already been published in the US, publisher HarperCollins Australia confirmed that Aussie readers will not be able to read the chapter. 

‘For legal reasons we have redacted one chapter in the Australian/New Zealand edition and included an explanatory note accordingly,’ they said in a statement. 

‘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 blacked out chapter was titled ‘Sacha Baron Cohen and Other A**holes’ and described the allegedly inappropriate manner Cohen behaved towards her on the set of the 2016 comedy movie Grimsby.

A spokesperson for Baron Cohen said this move was a clear victory for the actor: ‘Harper Collins did not fact check this chapter in the book prior to publication. Took the sensible but belated step of deleting Rebel’s defamatory claims.

‘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 hundreds of years. This is a clear victory for Sacha Baron Cohen.’