Author accuses Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson for having ‘cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights’

JK Rowling has suggested she would not forgive Harry Potter actors who have criticised her views on gender.

In a social media post she criticised celebrities who “used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning” of children, in an apparent attack on Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson.

Rowling accused the pair for having “cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights,” and suggested they instead made a public apology to those harmed by trans ideology.

Her comments came following a series of remarks on the Cass review, a landmark study into how children with gender issues had been let down by their treatment by the NHS in England.

Cass found that ideology, rather than normal medical practices, had influenced gender clinics leading to unproven and potentially dangerous treatments being given to vulnerable children.

Rowling said Dr Cass had exposed “severe medical malpractice” which had seen young people “experimented on”. She went on to criticise those who had “cheered on” an ideology which had left young people “infertile and in pain”.

Save apologies for ‘traumatised detransitioners’

Radcliffe and Watson, who made millions by playing Rowling’s characters Harry Potter and Hermione Granger in the film franchise, have both previously criticised the author for her belief that biological men cannot become women.

In response to a social media user on X, formerly Twitter, who said they were “just waiting for Dan and Emma to apologise safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them,” Rowling responded “not safe, I’m afraid”.

She added: “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.”

Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, has been among Rowling’s defenders, calling her a “modern saint” who had been “demonised” at a Conservative conference in Canada on Wednesday.

Rowling had previously welcomed the review by Dr Cass, which said that young people have been caught up in a “stormy social discourse” and gender care is currently an area of “remarkably weak evidence”.

“Even if you don’t feel ashamed of cheerleading for what now looks like severe medical malpractice, even if you don’t want to accept that you might have been wrong, where’s your sense of self-preservation?” Rowling wrote, in a series of posts on Wednesday.

“The bandwagon you hopped on so gladly is hurtling towards a cliff.”

She added that the report was “not a triumph, it’s the laying bare of a tragedy”.

Rowling denies being transphobic

Since December 2019, Rowling has hit the headlines for her views on transgender issues.

She has always strongly denied being transphobic and has been criticised by some fans for her social media posts about the issue.

In June 2020, Radcliffe, who had played Harry Potter throughout the eight films, put out a statement through the LGBT suicide prevention charity The Trevor Project saying “transgender women are women” and anything to the contrary “erases the identity and dignity” of people.

He acknowledged that Rowling is “unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken”, but said he felt “compelled to say something at this moment”.

Speaking in November 2022, he said: “The reason I felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did was because, particularly since finishing Potter, I’ve met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification with Potter on that.”

Watson and Rupert Grint, known for the role of Ron Weasley, in the Harry Potter film series; as well as Eddie Redmayne, who stars in Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts films, also spoke up during this period.

Watson said in a series of Twitter posts in June 2020: “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.

“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 a video posted to the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC), Mr Johnson said that Rowling was being “demonised” while talking about free speech.

“She’s probably done more to encourage young people to read around the world than any other person I can think of,” he told the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference.

“She’s a modern saint, it’s unbelievable what they’re saying about her.

“And by the way, what’s so crazy, is what she says about gender is, of course, what 95 per cent of the population secretly think.”

He added that people “don’t have the guts” to be outspoken on the issue “because they’re worried they will offend somebody”.