It is fair to say that JK Rowling and India Willoughby are not friends.
The pair have been engaged in a war of words online spanning back a year, over their opposing views on transgender issues.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling is known to be outspoken in her want of defending what she sees as women’s rights, but her vocalisation of what she believes is right has seen her gain many enemies in those who support the transgender community.
And no one more so than India Willoughby, an English newsreader and broadcaster, who is Britain's first transgender national television newsreader and was the first transgender co-host of all-women talk show, Loose Women.
The pair regularly take to X, formerly Twitter, to engage in their war of words.
But how did it all start? And what is the situation now? Here is all we know:
March 2018: Rowling likes an anti-trans tweet, but claims it was an accident
In March 2018, JK Rowling was spotted by a LGBT publication "liking" a tweet that referred to trans women as "men in dresses." Pink News asked her about it, but her spokesman claimed it was nothing more than an innocent accident.
In a statement she said: "I'm afraid JK Rowling had a clumsy and middle-aged moment and this is not the first time she has favorited by holding her phone incorrectly.”
December 2019: Rowling sides with researcher who lost contract over anti-trans statements
Issues surfaced again one year later when JK Rowling came under fire for coming to the defence of Maya Forstater, a researcher who had lost her job.
The researcher was in the middle of a lawsuit after her contract with a think tank wasn't renewed after she made a series of anti-trans statements. These statements included that people should not be "compelled to play along with literal delusions like 'transwomen are women,'" and she referred to a gender-fluid person as a "man who likes to dress in women's clothes."
In a tweet, Rowling stood with Forstater: "Dress however you please," she said on X. "Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?"
June 2020: Rowling's tweets spark backlash
Rowling continued to be outspoken on issues around gender and in 2020 the controversy escalated significantly when Rowling tweeted about an article with the headline, "Creating a more equal post Covid world for people who menstruate."
"'People who menstruate.' I'm sure there used to be a word for those people," Rowling said in a tweet, joking that the word women had become something that shouldn’t be spoken.
She continued: "Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?"
June 2020: Rowling publishes essay defending her stance as actors speak out
Not content with issuing the odd tweet with making her stance on gender issues known, Rowling decided to be public with her viewpoints more thoroughly, and published a 3,600-word essay on her website about why she had spoken out on "sex and gender issues" in the past.
She wrote that she is "worried about the new trans activism" and "the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition and also about the increasing numbers who seem to be detransitioning."
She added that as a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault in previous years, she sympathises with women who have "concerns around single-sex spaces” and sees it as necessary adding that we shouldn’t, as a society: “Open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he's a woman."
June 2020: Harry Potter stars hit back
Her essay did not come without backlash though.
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe spoke out in a series of tweets himself.
He said he disagreed with Rowling saying: "Transgender women are women. And any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I."
Hermione actor Emma Watson also waded in saying: “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren't who they say they are.”
September 2020: Critics suggest Rowling's new novel is anti-trans
Rowling published a new novel titled "Troubled Blood" under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The book told the tale of a male serial killer who dresses like a woman.
But critics said it was a clear sign of the author being anti-trans.
December 2021: Rowling slates police for allowing rape suspects identify as women
In another controversial tweet, Rowling shared a Times of London piece about the "'absurdity' of police logging rapists as women," after police officers confirmed that they would start recording rapes by offenders with male genitalia as being committed by a woman if the attacker 'identifies as a female.'
She tweeted and quoted George Orwell’s 1984, saying: “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman."
March 2024: The war begins with India
Rowling again took to X to complain about men and transgender people being allowed access into female changing rooms.
Another X user then sent Rowling a video of Willoughby, asking if she believed "this lady should use the men's locker room."
Rowling responded: "You've sent me the wrong video. There isn't a lady in this one, just a man [reveling] in his misogynistic performance of what he thinks 'woman' means: narcissistic, shallow and exhibitionist."
March 2024: The public spat continues
When the X user asked how Willoughby could be a misogynist if she "[became] a woman," Rowling wrote: "India didn't become a woman. India is cosplaying a misogynistic male fantasy of what a woman is."
Willoughby responded by saying that she was "genuinely disgusted" by Rowling's comments about her.
She wrote: "Grotesque transphobia, which is upsetting. I am every bit as much a woman as JK Rowling. Recognised in law, and by everyone I interact with every day. The debate about whether JK Rowling is a transphobe is over."
Defending her position in a follow-up X post, Rowling said: "Accurately sexing trans-identified men who send misogynistic abuse to women is not discrimination. 'Man' is not a slur. I know a lot of you think the UN should intervene whenever women bruise your egos, but there is no human right to universal validation."
March 2024: India seeks legal action
Willoughby took to X herself and accused Rowling of "indisputable transphobic bullying," adding: "If I ever get murdered, you know who to blame. #StochasticTerrorism."
In a video interview with Byline TV she then confirmed she had reported the author to the police in Northumbria, England.
She said: "JK Rowling's definitely committed a crime. I'm legally a woman, she knows I'm a woman, and she calls me a man. It's a protected characteristic, and that is a breach of both the Equalities Act and the Gender Recognition Act.
"She's tweeted that out to 14 million followers. If you check out the accounts that have been responding to me on the back of that—her trigger—it's absolutely disgusting, putrid. Some of the worst abuse I've ever seen on social media.
“I have reported it to the police for what she said, which I don't know if that's going to be treated as a hate crime, malicious communications. But it's a cut and dried offence, as far as I'm concerned.”
March 2024: Rowling hits back, says she could sue Willoughby instead
Rowling hit back in a string of X posts, writing: "Some time ago, lawyers advised me that not only did I have a clearly winnable case against India Willoughby for defamation, but that India's obsessive targeting of me over the past few years may meet the legal threshold for harassment."
"I ignored this advice because I couldn't be bothered giving India the publicity he so clearly craves," Rowling wrote. "Nevertheless, we must all do our bit to combat hate, so India will be glad to know I've taken note of his homophobia, racism, and humane stance on immigration.
“Aware as I am that it's an offence to lie to law enforcement, I'll simply have to explain to the police that, in my view, 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."
Northumbria Police stated that India Willoughby’s accusation that the author misgendered her online did not “meet the criminal threshold”.
The case is dropped.
April 2025: Rowling celebrates U.K. Supreme Court ruling
In April, the United Kingdom's Supreme Court unanimously passed a ruling that limited the definition of a woman to be based on "biological sex" under Britain's Equality Act.
The moves means that trans women are now excluded from being protected from discrimination.
In response to the ruling, Rowling gloated in several X posts and shared photo of herself drinking a cocktail and smoking a cigar, captioned "I love it when a plan comes together."
June 2025: War ignites again as India makes Iran reference
Willoughby used X to say that Iran had “better trans rights” than the UK and US.
She said: “Works both ways. I could live in Iran. Better trans rights than the UK and US. We do nearly all of the bad things they do.
“Israel is currently wiping out a whole people - aided and abetted by Labour, who are shamefully trying to cover their a***. War crime. I don't feel safe with Netanyahu or Trump having nuclear weapons. I don't believe anything that Israel, US or UK say. Why should I? Because I'm English and should trust the BBC?”
JK Rowling hit back incensed: “@IndiaWilloughby, I'd be delighted to buy you a ticket to Iran.”
Fans seemed to side with Rowling here, with many slamming Willoughby’s comparison. One wrote: “Better LGBTQ rights? In Iran since 1979, an estimated 4,000-6,000 gay men and women have been executed under Sharia law, with sodomy punishable by death.”
