The latest update in JK Rowling’s ongoing feud with the trio of Harry Potter actors has seen its latest update after Emma Watson spoke out on the author.
Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint have long had a pronounced divide with Rowling over LGBTQIA+ issues, specifically the author’s views on transgender rights.
This split is so severe that the director of the first film, Chris Columbus, announced that a reunion for his planned film version of The Cursed Child would never happen due to ‘political stuff’.
The trio have publicly spoken out against Rowling over her views on transgender people, with the author having previously claimed that she would rather go to prison than use a trans person’s preferred pronouns, and misgendered trans newsreader, India Willoughby, something which the former Loose Women co-host said she was 'genuinely disgusted' by.
Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint spoke out against Rowling’s views
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The trio have all spoken out to varying degrees to lend their support to the transgender community.
Daniel Radcliffe released a statement via the Trevor Project, a non-profit suicide prevention organisation he works with that focuses particularly on LGBTQIA+ youth, saying that ‘trans women are women’ and that ‘any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations.’
Watson and Grint also followed suit, with the Little Women star saying that trans people deserve to live their lives without being ‘constantly questioned’ and Grint saying: “I firmly stand with the trans community. Trans women are women. Trans men are men.”
JK Rowling lashes out at the Harry Potter trio following the publication of the Cass Report.
Rowling lashed out at the trio, particularly Watson and Radcliffe, following the publication of the Cass Report.
The Cass Report was a heavily critiqued independent review into gender identity services provided by the NHS in the UK, a controversial independent report into the gender identity services available to young people.
When asked whether it was ‘safe to say’ she would accept apologies from Radcliffe and Watson after this, she said that was not the case, adding: “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.”
When later asked during a Q&A for three things that ruin a movie for her, she fired another indirect shot at them, saying: “Three guesses. Sorry, but that was irresistible.”
Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe respond to Rowling’s comments.
Radcliffe was the first to respond, saying in an interview with The Atlantic: “Jo, obviously Harry Potter would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person. But that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life.”
Watson took a similar approach, stating that she still has love for Rowling, but that they do not agree.
In an appearance on the On Purpose With Jay Shetty podcast, she said: “I really don’t believe that by having had that 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 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.”
She went on to say that the thing that makes her ‘most upset’ is the fact that she never had a conversation with Rowling, and that she is always open to that discussion.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the LGBT Foundation on 0345 3 30 30 30, 10am–6pm Monday to Friday, or email [email protected]
Topics: JK Rowling, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Harry Potter, TV and Film, Film, Celebrity, LGBTQ
Michael Slavin