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J.K. Rowling hits back at 'ignorant' Emma Watson - read full statement
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J.K. Rowling hits back at 'ignorant' Emma Watson - read full statement

J.K. Rowling hits back at 'ignorant' Emma Watson - read full statement

J.K. Rowling has taken to X with a statement branding Emma Watson as 'ignorant' after the actress made comments about the author on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast.

Image© Getty Images
Georgia Weir
Georgia WeirWriter
September 29, 2025
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J.K. Rowling has responded to Emma Watson after the actress addressed the state of their relationship on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast recently. The Harry Potter author, 60, took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share an almost 700-word statement in which she described Emma, 35, as 'ignorant'. "I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created," J.K.'s post begins. "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."

"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 author continued later in the statement. J.K. has been outspoken since 2020, when her views on the transgender community sparked widespread backlash, prompting many LGBTQ+ rights groups – and several original cast members from the films – to speak out.

At the time, J.K said that she would "never forgive" Emma or her Harry Potter co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint for having "cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights". Most recently, Emma, who appeared on Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast, addressed her relationship with the author.

"I really don't believe that by having had [my] experience and holding the love and support and views that I have, [means] 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." Emma added: "I think the thing I'm most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible."

HELLO! has reached out to representatives for Emma Watson for comment.

''I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points. 

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. 

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. 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. 

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. 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. 

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. 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.

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.''

The actress continued: "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 whom I don't necessarily share the same opinion with." Emma added: "I think the thing I'm most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible."

Though J.K. didn't initially respond when the podcast was first posted online, her statement responds to Emma's comments, saying: "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."

J.K. Rowling and Emma Watson publicly fell out in 2020© David M. Benett
J.K. Rowling and Emma Watson publicly fell out in 2020

"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 continued. "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." 

Harry Potter cast members speak out against J.K. Rowling

In 2020, after J.K. published a 3,600-word essay on her website about why she had spoken out on "sex and gender issues", a number of Harry Potter stars publicly distanced themselves from the author while also expressing their distress over threats made to her safety at the time.

J.K. Rowling pictured with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in 2004© Dave Benett, Getty Images
Various actors from the film series have publicly spoken out in the years following J.K. Rowling's 2020 essay.

In an essay defending the LGTBQ+ community for The Trevor Project, Daniel Radcliffe began by acknowledging: "Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken," however, he went on to say: "Transgender women are women. Meanwhile Emma publicly opposed the author's views in a statement responding to J.K.'s essay 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.

Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley, also made a statement at the time, saying: "I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers. Trans women are women. Trans men are men." Speaking to The Times in 2022, he added: "I liken JK Rowling to an auntie. I don’t necessarily agree with everything my auntie says, but she’s still my auntie. It’s a tricky one."

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