Rebel Wilson Dishes On Her Daughter, Wedding Planning & Finding Balance

When it comes to her personal life, actor and comedian Rebel Wilson has had a few big years since the pandemic. She began dating her partner, entrepreneur Ramona Agruma, in 2021. By 2022, she was coming out publicly (during Pride Month, no less) and announcing that she was in love with a woman. By November, she announced that the pair had welcomed their first child, Royce Lillian, born via surrogacy.

And then in February of this year, the happy couple got engaged at Disneyland — one of Wilson’s favorite places, and a place that the couple has enjoyed throughout their relationship.

The 43-year-old Pitch Perfect star now finds herself as a mom in a two-mom household, juggling various work obligations (like a partnership with Zevo, an insect spray and trap company) while also trying to baby proof, plan a wedding, and occasionally sneak away with her partner to Disney. Finding a balance has been the hardest puzzle piece, but even with that challenge, she’s happy, healthy, and just tickled by her little girl.

Last week, Wilson sat down with Scary Mommy to talk about her new life, from its joys to its roadblocks, from confronting mom guilt to hearing her baby say her name for the first time.

Scary Mommy: How is Royce? Is she hitting any cute baby milestones?

Rebel Wilson: My darling Roycie is eight months old and it's a constant learning experience with her. And she's just the cutest little angel. She just started talking and her first word was mom. We don’t know if it's directed at me or Ramona. It is both of us. We were there with her and she started saying, mom, mom, mom. And, and I got the phone out and needed to record it. She's just such little cutie. She's also got her first little baby teeth and it is just really incredible to see how she's growing up.

SM: Is she starting to crawl a bit?

RW: She does these weird downward dog-type yoga poses in her little playpen. And she's definitely moving — I wouldn't say she like scrambles across a whole floor, but if you put a toy a little bit away from her, she can move to it. And she can sit herself up from lying down. Just her core muscles, she almost does these planks! I’m like, how is she doing that for like 10 minutes at a time? We did put up the baby gates recently in anticipation of her moving around a lot more.

SM: With two moms in the house, have you had a discussion about who will be called what?

RW: The complication is that my mother, who is Royce's grandma, wants to be called Mama. She says she's too young to be a called grandma. And so I was like, well, hang on. So then we're left with like mom or mommy — and we've got mama. It's gonna get very confusing and we haven’t quite resolved it. We'll see what Roy naturally starts to call us.

SM: What has been the biggest parenting challenge so far?

RW: I didn't know what it was gonna be like mixing parenting and work. I did a movie in January where I had to fly to Italy and it was too big of a trip to bring Roycie just for a week. And the guilt you feel when you leave your child and you have to go to work — that to me is the challenge.

And how do I juggle my full-on professional schedule with the baby and making sure that I'm still very present there? I'm lucky I have Ramona, who's such an amazing, incredible partner, and is more the parent that stays home. And so to me it's the guilt feelings is challenging and then also just working out, well, how am I gonna balance it?

And because I didn't know what it was going to be like this first year of Royce’s life, I had projects that were already on. Moving forward to next year, I have to work out if I really want to work as much because every time I have to leave I do feel a bit sad. But then at the same time, I want her to see that I have a great work ethic and that I go out and earn money for the family. I think it’s really important for her to witness that.

SM: How’s wedding planning going?

RW: It's happening, but we're just too busy with Royce and everything going on. I'm directing a movie later this year in Australia as well. So we think it'll happen next year and we're looking at some venues and trying to decide. We'll have people flying in and it's a big decision as to where to have it, how big it's gonna be, how expensive it's gonna be — all those things. We're chit-chatting, but I think next year is probably a better timing. It'd be cool for Royce to walk down the aisle and throw little flower petals. I think that would be gorgeous.

SM: What was your experience with surrogacy like?

RW: The reason why I chose that route is because I had a much better statistical chance of the embryo that I had going to the successful live birth if I had a younger surrogate. To me it was just a very, very positive, amazing experience.

And I'm so indebted to my beautiful surrogate who I just think is like the most gorgeous woman. And she helped her family and helped me create my family. It was this gorgeous relationship.

In LA it is very common now. I feel like at Cedars Hospital, where Roycie was born, they're just so used to it, like, Oh yeah, you are the surrogate. But I understand it's not really like that in all parts of the country or in other countries. It was just my best chance of having a child, which I'd tried for years to have. And so it was like a really, really, really positive, beautiful thing.

SM: You got engaged at Disney and are a huge fan. What are you favorite things to do at the parks?

RW: I am a member of Club 33, which is our secret club at Disneyland. So we do go quite a bit. I'm not going every weekend, but I'll go a couple of times a year. My favorite snack there is the churro, which I am just obsessed with. And then we have certain rides we love. Like on one of our first dates, Ramona and I went there and we loved the Cars ride and [Disney’s] California Adventure Park.

SM: Has Royce visited Disney yet?

RW: No, she hasn’t. I saw a lady bringing basically a newborn on Pirates of the Caribbean and I was like, it's not that dangerous of a ride, but, oh gosh, we probably wouldn't bring Royce until at least she can walk around by herself and hopefully remember some of it. But until then we didn't want to bring her into those big crowd situations until she can enjoy it for herself.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.