‘Emma Watson poured petrol’: JK Rowling pens a note on how ‘Hermione’ joined in with gender activists to attack her, and now expects to be loved again

Harry Potter author JK Rowling penned a note on Saturday (29th September) slamming actor Emma Watson after the she recently took a U-turn and expressed “love” for the author following her public fallout with her over contrary views on gender identity. Watson, who played the character of ‘Hermione Granger’ in the famous Harry Potter series, said on a podcast, “There’s just no world in which I could ever cancel her out, or cancel that out, for anything,” and added, “It has to remain true. It is true.”

Emma Watson on J.K. Rowling despite their differences of opinion:

“I can love her. I can know she loved me. I can be grateful to her”

“What she’s done will never be taken away from me” pic.twitter.com/S12LrRQPp0

— Daily Harry Potter (@TheDailyHPotter) September 25, 2025

Notably, Emma Watson and her co-star Daniel Radcliffe publicly condemned Rowling for her views on gender identity and biological sex.

Commenting on Emma’s sudden change of heart for her, Rowling said, her comments on the podcast were “a change of tack”, which she has adopted because she has noticed that a full-throated condemnation of the author was “no longer quite as fashionable as it was”. The author eminded the actor how she “publicly poured petrol on the flames”, when the author was receiving death, rape and torture threats for her gender ideology.

Admitting that she held deep affection for the actors since they were children, Rowling said that the “turning point” in her feelings came after a moment during the 2022 BAFTA awards show, when Watson expressed solidarity with the trans community. Describing Watson’s views on gender as emerging out of her ignorance, Rowling said, “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”.

I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points.

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

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 29, 2025

“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,” the author concluded.