The former View co-host lashed out after the Harry Potter star’s nuanced response to a question about her relationship with Rowling — as the author and her stars have stood on opposing sides on transgender issues for years — triggered a new barrage from the author.
As J.K. Rowling launched an all-out assault on Emma Watson following the Harry Potter star finally addressing directly the trans-exclusionary sized elephant in their relationship, former The View co-host Meghan McCain couldn’t resist wading into the controversial fracas.
Within two hours of Rowling’s initial response on X, McCain was sharing her lengthy words with a few pithy additions of her own in praise of the “fearless icon.”
“JK Rowling is a fearless icon who has risked her entire career, safety and social clout for the sake of keeping our kids safe, women safe and calling out the science fiction insanity claims that there are more than 2 genders,” McCain commented. “I am grateful for her and have no interest in anything associated with Emma Watson who can stay at the pitch fork party she helped throw.”
Hours later, McCain returned to X to comment on Watson’s initial appearance on The Jay Shetty Podcast that triggered Rowling’s response, writing, “Now that the tide is shifting on trans issues, Emma Watson wants to change her tune and tell us how much she loves J.K. Rowling. It’s disingenuous and no one’s buying it.”
While the actress has never directly called out Rowling for her controversial stance on transgender issues and trans rights, she has made it known she does not share the same opinions.
In June 2020, Watson said, “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.” She followed up, writing, “I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are.”
In the years since, Rowling has said anyone like Watson or Daniel Radcliffe, who she believes “cozied 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” when one fan said they were waiting for the two actors “to give you a very public apology.”
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Watson’s Comments
In her recent podcast appearance, Watson was asked about her relationship with Rowling after the two had publicly stood on opposing sides of transgender rights issues.
“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,” Watson told Shetty when asked how she handles comments from Rowling.
“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 don’t think these things are either/or,” she continued. “I think it’s my deepest wish that like 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.”
“I see this world right now where we seem to be giving permission for this kind of throwing out of people or that people are disposable and I just think that’s … I will always think that’s wrong,” she added. “I just believe that no one is disposable and everyone, as far as possible, whatever the conversation is, should and can be treated with, at the very least, dignity and respect.”
When it comes to Rowling, however, Watson said she’s “most upset” that a “conversation was never made possible” with them on the subject. When asked whether she was still open to having that dialogue, she added, “Yeah, and I always will.”
“I just don’t want to say anything that continues to weaponize a really toxic debate and conversation, which is maybe why … it is why I don’t comment or continue to comment,” she added. “Not because I don’t care about her or the issue, but the way that the conversation is being hard is really painful to me. That’s why that decision.”
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Rowling’s Response
But while Watson didn’t want to “weaponize a really toxic debate and conversation,” Rowling went scorched earth in her response to the podcast appearance.
Acknowledging that she’s “not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created,” Rowling wrote in her post, “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,” Rowling continued. “Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created.”
She said that she had for years turned down interviews having to do with Watson because she “didn’t want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.” But the breaking point for her came in 2022 when Watson said, “I’m here for all the witches,” while on stage at the BAFTAs. Many, including Rowling, took this as a dig at the author’s controversial trans stance.
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“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,” Rowling wrote. “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.”
She went on to blast the actress, adding, “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,” slamming the actress as someone who will never need to use any of the public spaces the author is trying to keep the trans community out of.
“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,” Rowling wrote.
“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.”
She then concluded, “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.”
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