JK Rowling has hit back at "ignorant" Emma Watson as their feud over trans issues rumbles on

JK has suggested that Emma and her co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint - who starred as Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley respectively in the film franchise - had used their connection to Potter to act as "de facto spokespeople" for the series.

In a lengthy statement posted on social media, the 60-year-old author wrote: "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."

Rowling explained that she feels "protective" of the Harry Potter trio - who she has known since they were just 10 years of age - but can no longer stay silent on their criticism of her views.

She said: "When you've known people since they were 10 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."

JK also suggested that Emma's privileged upbringing makes her unqualified to speak out on trans issues that impact the general public.

The novelist wrote: "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 person cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison?"

Rowling continued: "I wasn't a multimillionaire at 14. 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 dec lare 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."