Featured Image Credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage/Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images
Topics: Harry Potter, JK Rowling, Emma Watson, Celebrity, Social Media
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Harry Potter, JK Rowling, Emma Watson, Celebrity, Social Media
Tensions between Harry Potter author JK Rowling and titular actor Daniel Radcliffe over LGBTQ+ rights have been rising for over four years now.
The silver-screen star made the courageous decision to join several of his former cast-mates publicly speak out against the writer's controversial views on transgender individuals, which she launched during a Twitter tirade in 2020.
If you're feeling out of the loop on the conflict, allow us to fill you in.
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Four years ago, 54-year-old author Rowling took to social media, where she made a number of dubious statements about 'people who menstruate'.
"I’m sure there used to be a word for those people," she responded to an article on the matter at the time.
"Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?"
Amongst the millions of disgruntled Harry Potter fans who immediately spoke out against the star were Wizarding World acting duo Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson.
The latter - famed for her role as Hermione Grainger in the eight-movie franchise - told her fans in a statement: "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."
Radcliffe also made a point of apologising to his followers for any 'pain' that Rowling had inflicted upon them.
The 35-year-old also wrote in an article for The Trevor Project at the time: "Transgender women are women.
"Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I."
In the weeks that followed, one of the Rowling's followers wrote to her on X: "Just waiting for Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology ... safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them ..."
However, Rowling then replied to say that they were ‘not safe’ in the knowledge of being forgiven by her.
“Not safe, I’m afraid," she wrote.
"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."
Thankfully, however, in response, father-of-one Radcliffe issued one further message of support to his followers, again emphasising the distance between his views and Rowlings.
Speaking in an interview with The Atlantic, the actor claimed: "It makes me really sad, ultimately, because 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.
"Jo, obviously Harry Potter would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person.
"But that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life."