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Stephen Fry has distanced himself from JK Rowling, saying in a recent interview that his former friend has been “radicalised by TERFS”.
The gay comedian narrated all seven Harry Potter audiobooks and has previously faced backlash for refusing to condemn Rowling’s transphobic views, but last week he declared the author was a “lost cause” during a live recording of The Show People podcast at a gay bar in London last week.
“She has been radicalised I fear and it may be she has been radicalised by TERFs, but also by the vitriol that is thrown at her,” Fry told host Andrew Keates. “It is unhelpful and only hardens her and will only continue to harden her, I am afraid. She seems to be a lost cause for us.
“I disagree profoundly with her on this subject. I am angry she does not disavow some of the more revolting and truly horrible, violently destructive things that people say. She does not attack those at all.
“She says things that are inflammatory and contemptuous, mocking, and add to a terribly distressing time for trans people. She has crowed at the success of legislation in Scotland and elsewhere, declaring things about gender.
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“So, I am very happy to go on the record to say that I am really angry. My view about all things of [a] sharp and difficult nature is that it is much more important to be effective than to be right.”
“When it comes to the transphobia issue, it is right to remind people that trans people are here and that they are hurting. They are being abominably treated. There’s a great deal of bullying, violence, suicide and genuine agony in the trans community.”
Fry said that while he had enjoyed the author’s company in the past, her radicalisation has “completely altered the way she talks and engages with the world now”.
Rowling has recently announced a fund to support individuals and organisations facing legal action for “protecting their sex-based rights,” which she is financing from her own fortune, with her net worth reportedly sitting at around £820 million, equivalent to than $1 billion AUD.
Her role in the rise of transphobic rhetoric cannot be ignored. Rowling regularly contributes her own money towards transphobic advocacy, previously donating tens of thousands of pounds to For Women Scotland. The donation helped fund a legal case on the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of a woman and sex, resulting in the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year defining women as based on their biological sex assigned at birth.
Fry’s tumultuous relationship with trans community
Fry last spoke publicly about Rowling during an appearance on podcast Roger Bolton’s Beeb Watch in 2022, when he said it wasn’t a discussion he wanted to get involved in, and that the issue was distressing for “both sides”.
“[JK Rowling’s] a friend of mine, and I have trans friends and intersex friends who are deeply upset by her,” he said at the time.
“That’s a circle I have to square personally. I’m not going to abandon my friends.”
“I would wish them both to retreat and to consider that it is possible for trans people to live full, accepted lives, according to their terms, in society, and for women to have all the rights and dignities that they demand.”
“But it isn’t possible if each side looks on the other as an enemy.”
He also faced backlash from the queer community in December when he labelled Stonewall UK’s work “nonsensical”.
“I supported Stonewall [for marriage equality and age of consent], but I have no interest or support for this current wave of nonsensical… it’s shameful and sad,” he said on “free speech” podcast Triggernometry.
“I was thrilled with a lot of the work Stonewall did in those days, but I do think it has got stuck in a terrible, terrible quagmire.”
Most of the Harry Potter cast have denounced Rowling’s views, much to her frustration, although Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the eight movies, said earlier in the month that he wasn’t “attuned” to discussion Rowling’s views on transgender people. The 37-year-old was recently cast to reprise his role as Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway this November.
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