JK Rowling calls Emma Watson ‘ignorant’ following rift over transgender rights
By PA Reporter
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has accused actress Emma Watson of being “ignorant of how ignorant she is” amid their ongoing row over transgender views.
Watson and her co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint have publicly backed transgender rights in the last few years, distancing themselves from Rowling who has criticised the actors in response.
Rowling, 60, has previously been accused of transphobia for her views on gender identity, which she denies.
The author made her latest comments in response to Watson, 35, discussing their relationship on Jay Shetty’s mental health podcast on Thursday, in which she said: “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.”
In a lengthy post on X, Rowling said on Monday: “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.”
The actress, who played Hermione Granger in the novels’ eight-part film series, will never need a homeless shelter or be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward, Rowling said.
She added: “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.”
The multimillionaire author said that “I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous” and 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”.
Responding to Rowling’s essay calling for single-sex spaces, Watson had posted on Twitter in 2020: “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.”
Yet Rowling said the “turning point” in their relationship came in 2022 when Watson gave a Bafta speech saying “I’m here for all the witches”, which some perceived to be a criticism of the author’s beliefs on gender.
The actress then handwrote a note saying “I’m so sorry for what you’re going through” and asked someone to pass it to Rowling in a “postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself”, the author claimed on X.
This came at a time “when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak” and “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”, she said.
Rowling added: “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.”
In the podcast, Watson said: “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.”
Watson, who is currently studying at the University of Oxford, added: “I think the thing I’m most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible.”
Rowling said Watson and Radcliffe “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.
“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 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’s post on X quoted a video from GB News in which Fiona McAnena, author of Terf Island: How The UK Resisted Trans Ideology, told the channel: “When you see the media starting to say trans women are men, think I think we really are winning.”
Ms McAnena added: “Whether (Watson) is trying to row back from that full-hearted support for transitioning children, or whether she’s just trying to get back in with JK Rowling in the hope of work, who knows?”