JK Rowling takes aim at trans activists trying to silence her as she opens up in candid interview

JK Rowling has addressed her critics who are opposed to her views on transgender people.

The author has grown notoriety within the trans community as they believe she holds transphobic views.

Most recently, there have been calls for fans of her Harry Potter franchise to boycott a new video game released earlier this year called Hogwarts Legacy.

But Rowling has urged people to try and avoid what she calls “black and white thinking” on controversial issues.

She explained that people should question their certainty in their beliefs.

She insisted that she did not care about maintaining her legacy or the opinion people had of her as a bestselling children’s author.

Rowling shared details of how she wrote the first Harry Potter book.
Jacob King

She said: “I do not walk around my house thinking about my legacy.

What a pompous way to live your life, walking around thinking, ‘What will my legacy be?’” She told The Witch Trials of JK Rowling.

She continued: “Whatever. I’ll be dead. I care about now, I care about the living,”

Discussing freedom of speech and critical thinking she said: “There is a huge appeal, and I try to show this in the Potter books, to black and white thinking.

“It’s the easiest place to be and in many ways it’s the safest place to be. If you take an all-or-nothing position on anything, you will definitely find comrades, you will easily find a community.

“I’ve sworn allegiance to this one simple idea.

“What I’ve tried to show in the Potter books, and what I feel strongly myself, is that we should mistrust ourselves most when we are certain.”

Directly addressing the controversy she has found herself in with the trans community she said: “I never set out to upset anyone.

:However, I was not uncomfortable with getting off my pedestal, and what has interested me over the last 10 years - and certainly over the last two to three years, particularly on social media - is [people saying] ‘You’ve ruined your legacy, you could have been beloved forever but you chose to say this.’

“I think you could not have misunderstood me more profoundly.”

Elsewhere, she spoke openly about her experience with an abusive ex-husband.

She revealed that she would secretly photocopy pages of the first Harry Potter book manuscript at work over fears it would be burnt by her husband at the time.

JK Rowling arriving for the world premiere of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
Dominic Lipinski

She explained: “The marriage had turned very violent and very controlling. He was searching my handbag every time I came home and I didn't have a key to my own front door.

She continued: “He knew what that manuscript meant to me because at a point he took the manuscript and hid it. That was his hostage.”

Rowling explained how the manuscript was the only thing she prioritised in her life as she knew her daughter was safe as she was still pregnant so her husband at the time could not get to her.

Revealing intimate details of the night she continued: “There came a night where he became very angry with me and I cracked and I said 'I want to leave'.

“He became very violent and he said 'You can leave but you're not getting Jessica, I'm keeping her, I will hide her'.

"So I put up a fight and I paid the price. There was a violent scene which terminated with me lying in the street. I went to the police and filed a complaint and the next day went back to the house with the police and got Jessica."