J.K. Rowling Blasts Emma Watson for Shocking Ignorance

The Rowling-Watson rift bubbled back up this week, and this time J.K. Rowling decided to jump in personally. If you felt like the conversation around Harry Potter and the people who made it has been simmering, consider this a fresh boil.

How we got here

• 2001–2011: Emma Watson plays Hermione Granger across eight Harry Potter films.
• March 2022: At the BAFTAs, Watson quips, 'I am here for all of the witches,' widely read as a shot across the bow at Rowling amid the ongoing gender identity debate. Rowling says she later received a private note from Watson: 'I am so sorry for what you are going through.'
• September 24, 2025: Watson talks about their strained relationship on Jay Shetty's 'On Purpose' podcast, stressing dignity, respect, and that she would not 'cancel' Rowling.
• September 29, 2025: Rowling posts a lengthy response, saying she wanted to address the renewed chatter around Watson's remarks.

What Watson actually said

On the podcast, Watson kept it measured. She said she believes no one is disposable, that even in tough conversations people should be treated with dignity and respect, and that there is no world where she would write Rowling off entirely. Translation: she does not agree with Rowling, but she is not deleting her from her life story either.

Rowling's reply, point by point

Rowling responded a few days later with a thread clarifying why she was speaking up now and where she stands with the former Potter leads. She kicked off by saying she had seen 'quite a bit' of commentary about Watson's podcast comments and wanted to address it directly.

'Like other people who have never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she is ignorant of how ignorant she is.'

That line is the sharpest jab, and it sets the tone. Beyond that, Rowling framed her position around a few ideas:

First, she says she is not owed lockstep agreement from actors who played characters she created. In her words, expecting that would be as silly as checking with her old boss from her early 20s before forming an opinion now.

Second, she argues that Watson and Daniel Radcliffe have, in practice, become de facto spokespeople for the Wizarding World years after the franchise wrapped. That is a little inside baseball, but if you have watched how every Potter-adjacent controversy pulls them back into the spotlight, you get what she means.

Third, she draws a line between disagreement and harassment. Rowling says Watson and Radcliffe have every right to embrace gender identity ideology, and she emphasizes she would never want them to face loss of work, threats, or violence for their views.

About that BAFTA moment

Rowling revisited Watson's 2022 BAFTA comment — the now-famous 'witches' line — and says that afterward she received a private message from Watson apologizing for what Rowling was going through at the time. Rowling notes that period included threats and stepped-up security, which is her way of reminding everyone these debates have had real-world spillover.

The bottom line

This is one of those stories where both sides say they do not cancel each other, but the distance between them is obvious. Watson is trying to keep it humane. Rowling is making it clear she is not backing off her beliefs and is not thrilled with being second-guessed by the stars of her own creation. It is messy, public, and very much not over.