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Emma Watson has addressed the continuing rift between herself and JK Rowling after the Harry Potter author declared she wouldn’t ‘forgive’ the trio.
Last year, Rowling, 60, said celebrities who voiced support for trans people could ‘save their apologies’ amid her support for a controversial Scottish gender law.
In this post, she directly included Watson, 35, and her Potter co-stars Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe, who have all endorsed trans rights.
After this dig, the trio have rarely discussed their relationship to Rowling, who also writes under the male pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
Now the actress has spoken about the ongoing tension and how she still wants to discuss the matter with Rowling.
‘I think the thing I’m most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible,’ Watson shared on the podcast On Purpose With Jay Shetty this week.
The Little Women actress added she would be open to that conversation and ‘always will’, explaining: ‘I believe in that. I believe in that completely.’
Watson added: ‘I just don’t want to say anything that continues to weaponise a really toxic debate and conversation, which is maybe why I don’t – it is why I don’t – comment or continue to comment.
‘Not because I don’t care about her or the issue, but because the way conversation is being had feels really painful to me. And so that’s why that decision.’
Rowling’s views on trans women in single-sex spaces have become her primary output on social media.
She has been at the centre of Britain’s gender row, daring Scottish police to arrest her as the Hate Crime Act came into force in April last year.
Then, when tweeting her approval of Cass’ findings, Rowling made her feelings towards those who disagree with her incredibly clear.
‘Just waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology … safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them …’ wrote X user Adam Harris.
‘Not safe, I’m afraid,’ quipped the author in response amid a thread praising the review and calling the trans rights movement a ‘scandal’.
She continued: ‘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.’
Watson, who is the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, reflected on her fractured relationship with the author who she knew throughout her childhood.
‘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 explained.
‘I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person, I don’t get to keep and cherish.
‘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 who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with.’
Rowling previously declared that ‘there are no trans kids’ and that no child is ‘born in the wrong body’ as well as misgendering people, such as Imane Khelif
In one post, she claimed transgender affirming support ‘will end up wreaking more harm than lobotomies’ on kids struggling with their identity.
Radcliffe, who played the titular wizard in the popular franchise and is an ambassador for LGBTQ+ charity The Trevor Project, has said he feels ‘really sad’ when he thinks of her.
In March 2023, the Home Office reported that 4,732 hate crimes against transgender people were recorded over a year, which was a rise of 11% from the previous year.
The report added that comments from politicians, media, and celebrities had likely added to this increase.
In the interview with Shetty, Watson also spoke about being banned from driving after being caught speeding earlier this year.
In July she admitted to going 38mph in a 30mph zone in Oxford. She was banned from driving for six months in July and had to pay a total of £1,044.
‘I was getting phone calls, like it’s on the BBC. It’s on international, worldwide news. I was like, my shame is everywhere,’ she reflected on the news being made public.
She went on to share that after not being able to drive for many years, and ‘clearly lacking the skills’.
‘When you work on movies, I don’t know if people know this, but they literally will not insure you to drive yourself to work. I’ve asked so many times,’ she explained.
‘You have to be driven, it’s not a choice. Especially because they need you there, down to the minute basically depending on what they have going on.
‘So I went from basically only driving myself on weekends or during a holiday, to then, when I became a student, driving myself all the time and I did not have the experience, or skills clearly, which I now will and do.’
She added: ‘It’s been a discovery and a journey that’s been humbling because on a movie set, I’m able to do all of these like extremely complex things, stunt, sing, dance, like do this thing, do that, whatever. And I’m like, “Yep, don’t worry about it, guys”. And then I get home and I’m like,”‘OK Emma, you seem unable to remember your keys. You seem unable to keep yourself at 30mph in a 30mph speed limit. Like you don’t seem able to do some pretty basic life things”. It’s been humbling.’
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