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 hold these days.
Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them.
However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right - nay, obligation - to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created.
When you've known people since they were ten years old it's hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn't managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio. For the past few years, I've repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling. Ironically, I told the producers that I didn't want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.
The television presenter in the attached clip highlights Emma's 'all witches' speech, and in truth, that was a turning point for me, but it had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself. Emma asked someone to pass on a handwritten note from her to me, which contained the single sentence 'I'm so sorry for what you're going through' (she has my phone number). This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family's safety. Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.
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. She'll never need a homeless shelter. She's never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward. I'd be astounded if she's been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her 'public bathroom' is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door. Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison?
I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women's rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.
The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me - a change of tack I suspect she's adopted because she's noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was - I might never have been this honest.
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.
Steak N Shake has sponsored a billboard for Charlie Kirk in Rome, Georgia.
This is incredible @SteaknShake 🇺🇸
“STAND UP, SPEAK OUT, STAY BOLD.”
These should go up in every city across the country.
🚨BREAKING: Thousands of people CHEER as Secret Service Snipers HYPE up the crowd from a ROOF-TOP outside Charlie Kirk's Memorial Service.
This is Incredible! 🇺🇸
The way I screamed and giggled and cried at the same time during this scene is just soo fucking amazing. I missed them soo much! My #BellyConrad heart is sooo happy I could cry again!🥹#tsitp3#tsitpfinale https://t.co/aDkYI1AruX
🚨 HOLY CRAP! Greg Gutfeld just EVISCERATED Jessica Tarlov for making the "both sides" argument about Charlie Kirk's kiIIing
"DON'T PLAY THAT BULLSHlT WITH ME!"
"We don't care about your 'both sides' argument. That shlt is DEAD!"
"On your side, your beliefs do not match reality so you're coming up with these rationalizations. 'What about this, what about that?' We are NOT doing that because we saw it happen. We saw a young bright man ASSASSlNATED and we know who did it."
"The media is DEAD to us on this story. They built this thing up. We are dealing with it, we are going to act. We don't care what the what about is anymore, that SHlT is dead!"
PREACH, @greggutfeld!
In what I consider to be one of the greatest moments on cable news TV, Greg G explains what liberalism is…a mental disorder. Jessica will never be the same. Absolutely priceless.
🚨 WTF?! JD Vance just revealed a leftist woman screamed at his 5 YEAR OLD at Disneyland
"You should disown your dad, you little SHlT!"
THIS IS THE MODERN DAY DEMOCRAT PARTY. All of America is seeing this now.
"Tell the Secret Service to protect the Constitution — not your father!" another woman screamed at JD's kids.
Sickening.
In loving memory of Charlie Kirk, a fearless patriot & man of unwavering faith who dedicated his life to America.
"It's bigger than you, I want you to remember that... It's bigger than me - you are here to make somebody else's life better, the pursuit of liberty & freedom."❤️
🚨 BREAKING: Maori men are now going viral for performing Haka for Charlie Kirk.
This is absolutely insane. Charlie's impact spread across cultures. It was not only America, not even close.
🚨 BEAUTIFUL: Phoenix Air Traffic Control sent a message to Charlie Kirk when he landed back in Arizona on Air Force Two
“Welcome home, Charlie. You didn’t deserve it… May God bless your family.” 🙏🏻
Americans of all walks of life are mourning the loss of Charlie 🇺🇸
If you believe free speech is for you but not your political opponents, you're illiberal.
If no contrary evidence could change your beliefs, you're a fundamentalist.
If you believe the state should punish those with contrary views, you're a totalitarian.
If you believe political opponents should be punished with violence or death, you're a terrorist.