JK Rowling via Associated Press
JK Rowling has once again taken aim at Harry Potter actor Emma Watson, who recently opened up about the rift that has grown between them.
For the last few years, the Wizarding World creator has become an increasingly controversial figure due to her commentary about issues relating to the transgender community.
This has included repeatedly and deliberately misgendering transgender public figures, and donating tens of thousands of pounds to the campaign group which raised the initial legal challenge that led to the UK Supreme Court’s divisive ruling that the legal definition of a woman should include only those who were assigned female at birth.
When Rowling first began facing criticism due to comments she’d made about trans people in 2020, Emma issued a brief statement in support of the community, which read: “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are.
“I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are.”
Emma Watson via Associated Press
Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint issued similar statements to Emma in 2020, and in the years since, Rowling has claimed that the trio should “save their apologies” (when one X user claimed that they owed her one), and later reportedly alluded to the fact the group had “ruined” the original run of films for her.
At the 2022 Baftas, Emma also appeared to make another display of solidarity with the trans community when she insisted she was “here for all the witches” while presenting an award.
During an interview with podcaster Jay Shetty last week, Emma was asked how things stand between herself and Rowling now, to which she responded: “I really don’t believe that by having had that experience and holding the love and support and views that I have, mean that I can’t and don’t treasure Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with.
“I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person, I don’t get to keep and cherish.”
Noting she is “most upset” that a “conversation” between herself and Rowling was “never made possible”, she added: “It’s my deepest wish that I hope that people who don’t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with.”
Over the weekend, Rowling indirectly responded to Emma’s comments on X, but addressed them more explicitly in a lengthier post on Monday.
Reposting a GB News debate about the Little Women star’s remarks, Rowling wrote: “I’m not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was 21 for what opinions I should hold these days.
“Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn’t want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them.
“However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right – nay, obligation – to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created.
“When you’ve known people since they were 10 years old it’s hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn’t managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio. For the past few years, I’ve repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on [the Tortoise podcast series] The Witch Trials of JK Rowling. Ironically, I told the producers that I didn’t want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.”
Rowling then turned her attention to Emma’s speech at the TV Baftas. In the accompanying GB News clip, the presenters allude to speculation that the actor’s “I’m here for all the witches” comment was followed by her inaudibly mouthing “but one”. This last part remains unverified, with some instead suggesting she mouthed “by the way”.
Either way, Rowling says this 2022 moment was a “turning point for me”, claiming it “had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself”.
JK Rowling with the then-teenage Harry Potter cast in 2004 via Associated Press
Rowling alleged: “Emma asked someone to pass on a handwritten note from her to me, which contained the single sentence ‘I’m so sorry for what you’re going through’ (she has my phone number).
“This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family’s safety.
“Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.”
celebrity.land UK contacted Emma Watson’s team on Monday but did not receive a response.
Rowling then added: “Like other people who’ve never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she’s ignorant of how ignorant she is.”
After firing off more arguments relating to her personal views on trans rights, Rowling concluded: “The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me – a change of tack I suspect she’s adopted because she’s noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was – I might never have been this honest.
“Adults can’t expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend’s assassination, then assert their right to the former friend’s love, as though the friend was, in fact, their mother.
“Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public – but I have the same right, and I’ve finally decided to exercise it.”
See JK Rowling’s full X post for yourself here.
Rowling has also been in the headlines lately as a new TV adaptation of the Harry Potter books is currently in the works, as is a new audiobook series for each of the novels.
While some have questioned whether these new adaptations are really necessary given the success and recency of the eight Harry Potter movies, others have also criticised the TV series’ all-star cast for accepting roles in the show given Rowling’s involvement as an executive producer.
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