JK Rowling says actors who publicly criticized her transgender views privately tried to stay friends

The author didn't name names, but has had public disputes with Harry Potter actors Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe.

J.K. Rowling is criticizing the double standards of friends who have been quick to denounce her views on transgender rights.

In an excerpt from the book The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, published by The Times of London, Rowling expressed her surprise at colleagues who publicly condemned her views, yet privately emailed her to ensure their friendship remained intact.

“People who’d worked with me rushed to distance themselves from me or to add their public condemnation of my blasphemous views,” she wrote.

“In truth, the condemnation of certain individuals was far less surprising to me than the fact that some of them then emailed me, or sent messages through third parties, to check that we were still friends.”

Rowling further commented, “those appalled by my position often fail to grasp how truly despicable I find theirs. I’ve watched ‘no debate’ become the slogan of those who once posed as defenders of free speech. I’ve witnessed supposedly progressive men arguing that women don’t exist as an observable biological class and don’t deserve biology-based rights.”

The author did not mention anyone specifically, but she has had public disputes with individuals who collaborated with her on the Harry Potter films in recent years.

She recently rekindled her verbal clash with Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson last month after the publication of a significant UK review on gender identity services for children and young people by the National Health Service.

Rowling posted on X (formerly Twitter): “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.”

Radcliffe, among the first Harry Potter cast members to speak out in support of the trans community, expressed his sadness over Rowling's stance in an interview with The Atlantic last month.

“I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.”

In her article for The Times, Rowling stated she had no regrets: “Ultimately, I spoke up because I’d have felt ashamed for the rest of my days if I hadn’t. If I feel any regret at all, it’s that I didn’t speak far sooner."