J.K. Rowling has hit back at Emma Watson’s recent comments about her, claiming the actor is “ignorant of how ignorant she is”.
Last week, Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film franchise, appeared on the On Purpose With Jay Shetty podcast and addressed the strained relationship she has with the Potter author.
Watson has been among those to be vocally critical of Rowling’s gender critical position in recent years and has said in the past: “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.”
On the new podcast, Watson said she would still “cherish” her relationship with Rowling despite these disputes, saying their disagreement over Trans rights does not mean that she “can’t treasure Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with”.
Now, Rowling has written a lengthy post on X to reply to Watson, saying that while she supports the actor’s right to hold her own views, she said Watson had in the past “publicly poured more petrol on the flames” that had led to Rowling fearing for her family’s safety.
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… https://t.co/c0pz19P7jc
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 29, 2025
“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,” Rowling continued. “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.”
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“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?”
The author compared Watson’s early financial success to her own “poverty” as a young adult during the period that she was “writing the book that made Emma famous”.
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.”
“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.”
Rowling has in the past said she would “never forgive” Watson and her co-star Daniel Radcliffe for their criticism of her viewpoint on gender ideology, which many people have described over the years as transphobic.
In other Harry Potter news, HBO is currently in the process of making a much-anticipated television adaptation of the book series, with one book set to be covered per season. John Lithgow will play Professor Dumbledore, Nick Frost will be Hagrid, and Paapa Essiedu will play Severus Snape.
Young newcomer Dominic McLaughlin is set to play Harry, with Arabella Stanton portraying Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout taking on the role of Ron Weasley. The series is set to premiere sometime in 2027.
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