ONLINE FEUD

‘Big Brother’ Host Reported J.K. Rowling to Police for Misgendering Her

The “Harry Potter” author claimed that her “gender critical views” are protected under the law as a philosophical belief.

British TV presenter India Willoughby said she reported author J.K. Rowling to local authorities for repeatedly publicly misgendering her.

In the past week, a long-standing online feud between the two has boiled over, and Rowling has repeatedly shared X posts that misgender Willoughby, who transitioned in 2015.

In an interview with Byline, Willoughby said she'd gone to authorities over the tweets. “J.K. Rowling has definitely committed a crime,” the Big Brother host said. “I’m legally a woman, she knows I’m a woman, and she calls me a man.”

Willoughby said she’d reported the author to the Northumbria Constabulary. “At the end of the day, it is a hate crime,” Willoughby said. In the U.K., gender reassignment is a protected characteristic, and hostility based on a person’s transgender identity can be prosecuted as a hate crime, according to the CPS.

Rowling responded on X, accusing Willoughby of defamation and harassment, and saying that she would tell the police that, “India is a classic example of the male narcissist who lives in a state of perpetual rage that he can’t compel women to take him at his own valuation.”

Rowling also claimed that her “gender critical views” are protected under the law as a philosophical belief. In the past few years, Rowling has leaned hard into her brand of trans-exclusionary feminism, leading scores of fans to turn against her and her recent projects.

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Edith OlmstedBreaking News Intern

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