Last week, actress Emma Watson appeared to be extending an olive branch of sorts to author JK Rowling. Rowling, who created the character of Hermione and made Watson a star, was not keen on the idea several days ago.
"History is littered with the debris of irrational and harmful belief systems that once seemed unassailable. As Orwell said, 'Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them,'" Rowling wrote on X. "Gender ideology may have embedded itself deeply into our institutions, where it's been imposed, top-down, on the supposedly unenlightened, but it is not invulnerable."
She also added, "A little reminder for anyone who may be regretting their very public sprint to the front of the mob and is now trying to discreetly shove their pitchfork out of sight."
Now Rowling is digging deeper into her rejection of Watson's attempt at reconciliation.
I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 29, 2025
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
Here's more of what Rowling said:
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.
And therein lies the problem.
Rowling continues:
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.
Rowling has faced numerous death threats and threats of lawsuits over her stance on trans issues and women's rights. She went so far as to tell the government to arrest her when Scotland passed a hate crime law last year.
The post continues:
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?
Rowling has also been incredibly cognizant of the fact she has privileges most women do not enjoy, including the ability to get private security to protect her from those who would threaten her. Something she slams Emma over:
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.
This honesty is what's needed, and it will not end well for Watson.
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.
In the clip Rowling mentioned, Director of Campaigns at Sex Matters Fiona McAnena said of Watson, "I think there are som other positive signs too, that things are shifting. When you see the media starting to say 'trans women are men' then I think we really are winning," and added, "I think [Watson is] going to find that you can’t sit on the fence... The real win is when ordinary people can say these things."
“I think she’s going to find that you can’t sit on the fence... The real win is when ordinary people can say these things.”@DerryBanShee speaks to @joshxhowie about Emma Watson’s comments about JK Rowling.
— Sex Matters (@SexMattersOrg) September 29, 2025
📺 https://t.co/QFKNj0XXrH pic.twitter.com/ULjs4x89hT
McAnena and host Josh Howie also discussed how "nasty" Watson was at a time when Rowling was under constant attack for her views. "It was just nasty," Howie said, "right when JK Rowling was getting a lot of rape threats, death threats."
"Whether she is trying to row back from that full-hearted support for transitioning children," McAnena said, "or whether she's just trying to get back in with JK Rowling in the hope of work, who knows?"
Doesn't seem like getting back in with Rowling any time soon.
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