AUTHOR JK Rowling has hit back at Sir Stephen Fry amid the pair’s public trans row.
It comes after Fry, who has previously referred to the Harry Potter creator as a “friend of mine”, called her out for her views on trans women.
GettyJK Rowling has sensationally claimed that she was never friends with Stephen Fry[/caption]
XThe author denied suggestions she was pals with Fry[/caption]
The Mega AgencyThe 67-year-old presenter accused Rowling of being a ‘lost cause’[/caption]
The 67-year-old presenter, who narrates the popular Harry Potter audio books, turned his back on Rowling, 59, accusing her of being a “lost cause”.
The comedian said: “She has been radicalised I fear and it may be she has been radicalised by TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminist).
“It is unhelpful and only hardens her and will only continue to harden her I am afraid.
“I am sorry because I always liked her company. I found her charming, funny and interesting.
“Then this thing happened and it completely altered the way she talks and engages with the world now.
“I am not saying that she not be called out when she says things that are really cruel, wrong and mocking.
“She seems to be a lost cause for us.”
Fry‘s words were then reposted on social media by barrister Jo Maugham – prompting a brutal response from the author.
In response to the tweet, Rowling denied claims that the pair were close.
Posting on X, she said: “It is a great mistake to assume that everyone who claims to have been a friend of mine was ever considered a friend by me.”
The author is no stranger to such comments and has long stood firm in the face of online pressure.
Rowling has come under fire for comments made in the past towards trans people.
In 2020, the esteemed author slammed the growing trend of replacing “biological sex” with “gender identity”.
Her stance, that declared “sex is real”, led to death threats, but also moulded her into a figurehead for the “gender-critical” movement.
Activists accused her of transphobia in 2020 when replying to an article with the headline: “Opinion: Creating a more equal post Covid-19 world for people who menstruate.”
She tweeted: “‘People who menstruate’. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people.
“Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
Her remarks led to criticism from Potter actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, who ignored the fact her books had made them famous to launch a string of attacks.
It was Rowling’s beloved group For Women Scotland which also launched a long-running legal battle with the Scottish government over how a “woman” was defined in Scottish law.
The Scottish government had argued people with gender recognition certificates (GRCs) should be protected from sex-based discrimination, meaning a transwoman would be considered a woman.
However, campaign group For Women Scotland claimed this only applied to people born as a female.
In April, the Supreme Court‘s landmark judgement ruled that it was unanimously determined “sex is binary” and that female-only spaces must be protected on the basis of biology.
Hailing the landmark decision, Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch said: “Saying ‘trans women are women’ was never true in fact, and now isn’t true in law either.
“This is a victory for all of the women who faced personal abuse or lost their jobs for stating the obvious.
“Women are women and men are men: you cannot change your biological sex.”
Simon JonesThe author is no stranger to such comments and has long stood firm in the face of online pressure[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
