J.K. Rowling has issued a sharp response to Emma Watson’s recent comments about their disagreement over transgender rights, accusing the actor of being “ignorant of how ignorant she is.”
The comments come after Watson’s appearance on a podcast, where she reflected on her personal relationship with the “Harry Potter” author while distancing herself from Rowling’s public stance on gender issues.
“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. “I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person I don’t get to keep and cherish.”
Rowling addressed the remarks in a detailed social media post.
“Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology,” she wrote on X Monday. “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,” she wrote.
“However, Emma and Dan [Radcliffe] 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,” Rowling added.
Watson, along with Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, has previously spoken out against Rowling’s position. In 2020, after the author’s essay on maintaining single-sex spaces, 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.”
Rowling said she had avoided commenting directly on Watson’s views in the past, explaining that she “didn’t want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.” She described receiving a note from Watson after her 2022 BAFTA speech, which Rowling said came during a period of heightened security concerns.
“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 wrote.
The author further criticized Watson’s stance, saying, “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 … 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 has previously said she cannot forgive celebrities for aligning with what she described as “a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights.”
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