JK Rowling slams ‘ignorant’ Emma Watson as bitter rift deepens

JK Rowling has continued to taunt Emma Watson after the child star spoke about their relationship in a recent podcast amid an ongoing rift.

The Harry Potter author, 60, has previously said she won’t ‘forgive’ the child stars – Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe – after the trio shared their views on transgender women, given her own heavily criticised views on trans issues.

For the first time in years, the Hermione Granger actor, 35, addressed the seeming divide between the pair in a new interview on Jay Shetty’s podcast, On Purpose.

Discussing her feelings towards Rowling, the Little Women star shared that ‘the thing I’m most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible’ and that she’s ‘always open’ to one.

‘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,’ she concluded.

The author, however, appears to have shown she doesn’t necessarily feel the same way.

In her latest tweet, the writer quoted a video from Sex Matters, which discussed Watson and Rowling’s relationship on GB News.

‘I’m seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points,’ Rowling’s response began.

‘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 twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days, she wrote.

‘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 ten years old it’s hard to shake a certain protectiveness.’

She added that, ‘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 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.’

Acknowledging the video she shared, she continued to mention Watson’s previous comments, in which she declared she was ‘here for all of the witches’ in 2022. Rowling says this was a ‘turning point’ for her in how she viewed the actress.

‘The television presenter in the attached clip highlights Emma’s “all witches” speech, and in truth, that was a turning point for me, but it had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself,’ she explained.

‘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.’

Putting Watson on blast, she vented: ‘Like other people who’ve never experienced adult life cushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she’s ignorant of how ignorant she is. She’ll never need a homeless shelter. She’s never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward. I’d be astounded if she’s been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her ‘public bathroom’ is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door.

‘Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who’s identified into the women’s prison?

‘I wasn’t a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women’s rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.’

Rowling added that ‘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,’ she concluded.

‘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.’

Rowling’s lengthy post comes after her inital response to Watson’s podcast appearance, sharing a spoof clip of Watson, where X user @intel_lady has donned a wig to mimic her appearance as she shares a satirical take on her words towards Rowling.

At one point in the video, the parody Watson says: ‘I will always hold space for her and so much love in my heart for her, and I would hope that she felt the same way about me.

‘But also I stand shoulder to shoulder with those who would wish harm on her, hate her and would wish the absolute worst for her in her life. But those seemingly incompatible, those two things can exist at the same time, which is why I love this incredibly diverse world that we live in…’

Rowling – who also writes under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith – reposted the clip with the caption: ‘I’m already missing @intel_lady’sAngela Rayner, but I’m here for ALL the spoofs,’ alongside a laughing emoji.

In April 2024, Rowling praised the findings of the Cass Review, which looked at gender identity services for under-18s, and found that children had been ‘let down’ thus far by a failure to base gender care on evidence-based research.

After posting her approval of the findings, one X user Adam Harris, said he was waiting for a ‘public apology’ from the three actors ‘safe in the knowledge [Rowling] would forgive them.’

Rowling replied at the time: ‘Not safe, I’m afraid.

‘Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces.’

In 2020, Watson posted: ‘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.’

Meanwhile, both Radcliffe and Grint have also shared their solidarity with trans people in the past as well.

The same year, Radcliffe penned a note, saying: ‘Transgender women are women.

‘Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.’

This year, Rowling faced criticism from trans rights activists after it was reported that she had donated £70,000 to the campaigning group For Women Scotland, following a UK Supreme Court ruling impacting trans rights.