Emma Watson has spoken out on the tension she and her fellow Harry Potter stars have with JK Rowling.
Rowling has made her opinions on certain matters very clear and has voiced her thoughts on the transgender community on multiple occasions.
Most recently the British author praised the UK Supreme Court for ruling that the definition of a women is based on their biological sex, therefore a person who was not born as a biological female cannot be legally protected by the Equality Act 2010 by changing their gender with a Gender Recognition Certificate, BBC News reported at the time.
But the controversy surrounding Rowling dates back to 2020, after she poked fun an at article including the phrase ‘people who menstruate’.
Her remarks sparked backlash online and the likes of Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint all spoke out in support of trans people.
Emma Watson and JK Rowling seen together in 2011 (Jon Furniss/WireImage)
Rowling went on to respond by saying she’d ‘never forgive’ the actors for having ‘cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights’.
Five years on from their apparent fallout and Watson has addressed the matter. While she admitted she doesn’t share the same views as Rowling, the 35-year-old said that it doesn’t mean she doesn’t ‘treasure’ her.
“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,” Watson said on a recent episode of Jay Shetty’s podcast.
The actress addressed the fallout on Jay Shetty’s podcast (YouTube/Jay Shetty Podcast)
She went on: “I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person, I don’t get to keep and cherish. To come back to our earlier thing – I just don’t think these things are either/or.
“I think it’s my deepest wish that I hope 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.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Watson broke her silence on her six-month driving ban.
Noting how it became worldwide news, the actress said that she felt like her ‘shame [was] everywhere’.
She appeared to go on to blame her movie career and lack of driving experience for her ban.
“When you work on movies, I don’t know if people know this, but they literally will not insure you to drive yourself to work. I’ve asked so many times,” Watson said.
“You have to be driven, it’s not a choice. Especially because they need you there, down to the minute basically depending on what they have going on.”
The Little Women star added: “So I went from basically only driving myself on weekends or during a holiday, to then, when I became a student, driving myself all the time and I did not have the experience, or skills clearly, which I now will and do.”
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