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Emma Watson recently opened up about her strained relationship with the Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling, and why she had distanced herself from the author. During her September 24, 2025, appearance on the On Purpose With Jay Shetty podcast, Watson, reflecting on their differences, admitted that what hurt her most was the lack of dialogue between them.
"I think the thing I’m most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible," Emma Watson remarked.
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When host Jay Shetty asked if she would remain open to speaking with J.K. Rowling in the future, Emma Watson replied:
“Yeah. And I always will. I believe in that. I believe in that completely.”
At the same time, Watson also emphasized why she had chosen not to engage further in the controversy with J.K. Rowling publicly.
She explained that she did not "want to say anything" that would continue to "weaponize" a really "toxic debate" or conversation."
According to her, this was the main reason why she rarely commented on issues related to Rowling. It was not because she did not "care" about the "issue", but because the "conversation" felt "really painful" to her.
Emma Watson further clarified her stance on Rowling, adding:
"There's just no world in which I could ever cancel her out or cancel that out for anything...It is true. I just don't know what else to do other than hold these two seemingly incompatible things together at the same time and just hope maybe they will one day resolve or like cojoin themselves and maybe accept that they never but that they can both still be true."
She even remarked that even after everything, she can "love" Rowling and know that the author too had "loved" her back and be "grateful to her." She also noted that she knew the things that Rowling said were true, but the bigger truth was that what Rowling had done for Watson would never be taken away from her.
What else did Emma Watson say about her rift with J.K. Rowling?
During the aforementioned conversation, Jay Shetty revisited the tensions that arose between Emma Watson and J.K. Rowling over the latter’s views on trans people.
In 2020, J.K. Rowling had shared a series of tweets and an essay about trans identities, sparking criticism. Emma Watson, at the time, had posted a statement of solidarity on social media, supporting trans people and against Rowling's views.
"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," she said,
J.K. Rowling, however, did not take these remarks lightly. She made comments suggesting she would never forgive the trio for opposing her stance. In March this year, Rowling hinted at lingering anger, responding to a social media prompt that asked which actor “instantly ruins a movie” with the remark:
"Three guesses."
This was widely interpreted as a reference to the Harry Potter trio of Watson, Radcliffe, and Grint.
Reflecting on the rift, Shetty acknowledged the emotional weight Watson must have felt in being criticized by J.K. Rowling, someone who had played such an integral role in her life.
Watson, however, emphasized that her feelings toward the author remained layered.
"I really don’t believe that by having had that experience and holding the love and support and views that I have mean that I can’t and don’t treasure Joe and the person that I had personal experiences with. I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person I don’t get to keep and cherish," Emma Watson explained
According to Watson, treasuring someone and the experiences shared with them, and not supporting their views, was not an "either-or" situation.
She further added that her "deepest wish" was that she hoped that people like Rowling who did not "agree" with her opinion, would still "love" her. She also hoped that in return , she would be able to "keep loving people" with whom she did not "necessarily share the same opinion."
According to Watson, her mindset about loving people and still not agreeing with their opinion was a "very, very important way" for her to" be able to move through life."
The Perks of Being a Wallflower alum further noted that she believed in having "conversations" and such dialogue was "really important" in understanding someone during conflict. For her, the conflict arose not so much from what was being said as the tone in which it was said
She also remarked how she saw the "world right now" as a place where one had permission to treat people as "disposable." According to Watson, that was wrong.
"I just see this world right now where we seem to be giving permission for this kind of like throwing out people, or (thinking) that people are disposable. And I just think that’s wrong. I just believe that no one is disposable," Emma Watson explained.
This led Jay Shetty to comment how human beings today were "all being challenged" to try and "hold two truths at once". According to him, these two truths did not necessarily have to be "complementary," but it was important for people to accept that the two truths could exist "at the same time."
Emma Watson has been on a hiatus from acting for seven years and counting. Her last movie was the 2019 film Little Women, where she played Meg March.
Meanwhile, J.K. Rowling has been focusing on her Cormoran Strike series, which she publishes under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, continuing to build her literary legacy outside of the Harry Potter world.
