JK Rowling appeared to take aim at Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in a social media post shared to her 14.3million followers.
The 59-year-old author penned a biting response apparently hinting to the trio in response to the question: ‘What actor/actress instantly ruins a movie for you?’
Without missing a beat, Rowling cryptically wrote: ‘Three guesses. Sorry, but that was irresistible.’
She ended her post with three laughing emojis.
Many of her followers widely interpreted her riposte as a nod to the three child stars who played the lead roles in the successful franchise.
Relations between the multi-millionaire author and the actors – who rose to prominence thanks to the Harry Potter films – have been frosty for years because of Rowling’s views on trans rights.
Last year she publicly stated that could not ‘forgive’ Radcliffe and Watson or other celebrities who ‘cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights’.
The comments were made following the publication of the long-awaited Cass report into gender treatment in the UK, which recommended that changes should be made to the way young people are advised and puberty blockers should no longer be prescribed.
J K Rowling appeared to take aim at Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe , Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in a social media post shared to her 14.3million followers. Pictured: The author wth the actors in 2009
Many of Rowling’s followers widely interpreted her riposte as a nod to the three child stars who played the lead roles in the successful franchise
Rowling hit out at stars who use their ‘platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors’ and said people who supported gender transitioning in children should apologise to ‘traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces’.
The writer has been vocal in her opposition of allowing children to change their gender, while Radcliffe and Watson have been outspoken in their support of the trans community.
Following the publication of the Cass report many people who have expressed misgivings over allowing children to transition claimed they have been vindicated.
Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, Rowling said at the time that it was a ‘watershed’ moment and that it ‘lays bare the tragedy’ of allowing children to transition.
But when someone claimed that Radcliffe and Watson owe her ‘a very public apology… safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them’, Rowling responded by saying: ‘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.’
Rowling later wrote: ‘Kids have been irreversibly harmed, and thousands are complicit, not just medics, but the celebrity mouthpieces, unquestioning media and cynical corporations.
‘The consequences of this scandal will play out for decades. You cheered it on. You did all you could to impede and misrepresent research. You tried to bully people out of their jobs for opposing you. Young people have been experimented on, left infertile and in pain.
Relations between the multi-millionaire author and the actors, including Daniel Radcliffe who played Harry Potter, have been frosty for years because of Rowling’s views on trans rights
‘I thought the last tweet was going to be my last, but I just burst into tears. The #CassReview may be a watershed moment, but it comes too late for detransitioners who’ve written me heartbreaking letters of regret.
‘Today’s not a triumph, it’s the laying bare of a tragedy.’
Radcliffe has openly spoken about his rift with Rowling and said in an interview last May that his beliefs don’t have to align with the author’s just because she made him a star.
The actor, 34, and fellow Harry Potter stars Emma Watson, 34, and Rupert Grint, 35, have been outspoken in their support of gender ideology – that biologically male trans women are actually women.
Yet although Radcliffe admitted ‘nothing in my life’ would likely have happened if not for Rowling, he said that didn’t mean he didn’t owes her ‘the things he truly believes’.
In an interview with The Atlantic, he revealed that he had not spoken to Rowling for years, which had upset him.
He added: ‘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.’
Last year Rowling publicly stated that could not ‘forgive’ Radcliffe and Watson or other celebrities who ‘cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights’
He added: ‘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.’
Watson has also openly hinted at the furore with Rowling.
In 2022, Baftas host Rebel Wilson invited the actress onto the stage saying: ‘Here to present the next award is Emma Watson. She calls herself a feminist, but we all know she’s a witch.’
But when Watson arrived on stage, she said, ‘I’m here for all the witches!’, in a way that many interpreted as an open dig at Rowling.
has contacted JK Rowling’s management for comment.