J.K. Rowling is making her feelings known about the stars of "Harry Potter" speaking out against her political views.

Rowling, who authored the beloved young adult series and was integral in the making of a wildly popular movie franchise based on the books, has been an outspoken opponent of transgender rights in recent years.

In a lengthy tirade on X, taking aim at actress Emma Watson's "privilege" and recounting personal communications between the two, Rowling said that she had held her tongue for too long and was ready to enter the ring with the "Beauty and the Beast" actress.

"I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created," Rowling, 60, wrote in a Sept. 29 post. "The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days.

"Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology," she continued. "Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them."

Her post follows a recent interview in which Watson, who played Hermione Granger in all eight of the "Harry Potter" movies, said that despite disagreeing vehemently with Rowling's views, she still treasured the time they had spent together.

"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 Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with," Watson told host Jay Shetty during an appearance on his "On Purpose" podcast. "I will never believe that one negates the other, and that my experience of that person, I don't get to keep and cherish.

"There is just no world in which I could ever cancel her out, or cancel that out," Watson said, adding, "I can love her, I can know she loved me, I can be grateful to her. … What she's done will never be taken away from me."

That love did not appear to flow in both directions, however, as Rowling expressed disappointment on X that Watson continued to speak out on their strained relationship.

"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," she wrote, also referring to Daniel Radcliffe, who played the titular character in the film. Both Radcliffe and Watson, as well as Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the films, have distanced themselves from Rowling's anti-trans viewpoints over the past decade.

"Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created," she continued. "When you've known people since they were ten 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."

USA TODAY has reached out to Watson's reps for comment.

Rowling went on to say that a 2022 speech that Watson delivered at the BAFTA Awards, widely viewed as a message of support for the trans community, was a "turning point" for her. She alleged that Watson has requested a handwritten note be passed to Rowling that said, "I'm so sorry for what you're going through."

"This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family's safety," Rowling wrote on X. "Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.

"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," the author wrote, going on to list out a series of scenarios in which she feels "mixed-sex" facilities, used by people in her view less privileged than Watson, might prove dangerous. The tone she adopted matches much of her history of public comment on gender fluidity and transgender rights, which she views as an affront to women's safety.

"I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous," Rowling wrote. "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 declare 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," the author continued.

"Adults can't expect to cozy 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," she added. "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."

GLAAD, a global LGBTQ+ advocacy and non-profit organization, has identified Rowling as among the most prominent anti-trans voices in entertainment, chronicling both her financial involvement in a case at the U.K. Supreme Court that removed trans women from the legal definition, as well as her history of anti-trans rhetoric online.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: J.K. Rowling hits back at Emma Watson, doubles down on anti-trans views

Reporting by Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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