Rowling, 60, has previously been accused of transphobia for her views on gender identity, which she denies.<\/p>\n
The author made her latest comments in response to Watson, 35, discussing their relationship on Jay Shetty\u2019s mental health podcast on Thursday, in which she said: “I think it\u2019s my deepest wish that I hope people who don\u2019t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don\u2019t necessarily share the same opinion with.”<\/p>\n
In a lengthy post on X, Rowling said on Monday: “Like other people who\u2019ve never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she\u2019s ignorant of how ignorant she is.”<\/p>\n
![\"Emma](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0022e361-614.jpg\"\/)
\nJK Rowling responds to Emma Watson’s latest comments on X<\/p>\n
The actress, who played Hermione Granger in novels\u2019 eight-part film series, will never need a homeless shelter or be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward, Rowling said.<\/p>\n
She added: “I\u2019d be astounded if she\u2019s been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her \u2018public bathroom\u2019 is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door.”<\/p>\n
The multimillionaire author said that “I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous” and therefore “understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women\u2019s rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges”.<\/p>\n
Responding to Rowling\u2019s essay calling for single-sex spaces, Watson had posted on Twitter in 2020: “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren\u2019t who they say they are.”<\/p>\n
Yet Rowling said the “turning point” in their relationship came in 2022 when Watson gave a Bafta speech saying “I\u2019m here for all the witches”, which some perceived to be a criticism of the author\u2019s beliefs on gender.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/000e3e75-614.jpg\"\/)
\nRupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in Harry Potter<\/p>\n
The actress then handwrote a note saying, “I\u2019m so sorry for what you\u2019re going through” and asked someone to pass it to Rowling in a “postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself”, the author claimed on X.<\/p>\n
This came at a time “when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak” and “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 said.<\/p>\n
Rowling added: “The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me \u2013 a change of tack I suspect she\u2019s adopted because she\u2019s noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was \u2013 I might never have been this honest.”<\/p>\n
In the podcast Watson said: “I really don\u2019t believe that by having had that experience and holding the love and support and views that I have, mean that I can\u2019t and don\u2019t treasure Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with.<\/p>\n
“I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person, I don\u2019t get to keep and cherish.”<\/p>\n
Watson, who is currently studying at the University of Oxford, added: “I think the thing I\u2019m most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible.”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/00149916-614.jpg\"\/)
\nEmma Watson said she was “most upset” about lack of conversation between her and JK Rowling<\/p>\n
Rowling said Watson and Radcliffe “have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right \u2013 nay, obligation \u2013 to critique me and my views in public.<\/p>\n
“When you\u2019ve known people since they were 10 years old it\u2019s hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn\u2019t managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio,” she said.<\/p>\n
“For the past few years, I\u2019ve repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling.<\/p>\n
“Ironically, I told the producers that I didn\u2019t want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.”<\/p>\n
Source: Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Potter author JK Rowling has accused actress Emma Watson of being “ignorant of how ignorant she is”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-168757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}