JK Rowling has accused Emma Watson of being “ignorant of how ignorant she is” amid their ongoing disagreement about transgender issues.

The Harry Potter films’ three central stars – Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint – have publicly backed the rights of transgender people in recent years, often distancing themselves from the author when asked about her in interviews.

Rowling, 60, has previously been accused of transphobia, which she denies.

Watson, 35, discussed her relationship with the writer on a podcast last week, telling host Jay Shetty: “I think it’s my deepest wish that I hope people who don’t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with.”

Rowling has now shared a more than 600-word post on X in response to Watson, in which she states: “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 went on to say the Hermione Granger actress is never going to need a homeless shelter or be placed on a mixed-sex public hospital ward.

The multimillionaire author said that “I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous” and 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”.

Rowling added that while she has found it “hard to shake off a certain protectiveness” towards the Harry Potter stars, who she has known since they were children, there was a “turning point” in her relationship with Watson in 2022.

She said this happened when Watson gave a Bafta speech saying “I’m here for all the witches”, which some saw as a criticism of the author’s beliefs on gender.

The actress then asked someone to deliver her a handwritten note saying “I’m so sorry for what you’re going through”, the author claimed on X.

This came at a time “when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak” and “Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames”, Rowling said.

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Watson has often publicly disagreed with Rowling.

In 2020, she was one of several Harry Potter stars who showed their support for the trans community when the author shared a series of divisive posts online.

“I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are,” the actress wrote at the time.

Model Penny Lancaster has said she “felt ashamed and belittled” by how former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace treated her on the TV show.

Lancaster, who is also a TV personality and the wife of rock singer Rod Stewart, told Sky News’ The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee programme that she also felt let down by MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK.

“I didn’t feel like I was supported in that moment, I felt ashamed and belittled by the way Greg Wallace had treated me but equally I felt disappointed that the production company hadn’t come to my rescue,” Lancaster, 54 and a MasterChef contestant in 2021, said.

“There is a long way to go, but just by people coming forward and being honest about their experiences I think will help in the long term.”

At the end of July, Wallace, 60, apologised after a report commissioned by Banijay UK, and carried out by law firm Lewis Silkin, found 45 out of 83 allegations against him were substantiated.

Sir Rod Stewart criticised Wallace on Instagram in November 2024 and claimed he “humiliated” his wife when she was on the show.

He wrote: “Good riddance Wallace… You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you had that bit cut out didn’t you?

“You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully.”

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Sky News has approached Wallace for comment.

He has previously apologised to people he has hurt, saying in July that he knows he has said things that have offended people. He has denied a specific allegation of unwanted touching.

The BBC referred Sky News to their statement from July, in which the corporation said: “Although the full extent of these issues were not known at the relevant time, opportunities were missed to address this behaviour – both by the production companies running MasterChef and the BBC. We accept more could and should have been done sooner.

“We want to thank all those who took part in the investigation, including those who first raised concerns directly with the BBC in November last year. We apologise to everyone who has been impacted by Mr Wallace’s behaviour.”

Banijay UK, the producers of MasterChef, told Sky News: “We are extremely sorry to anyone who has been impacted by any inappropriate behaviour by Gregg Wallace whilst working on our shows and felt unable to speak up at the time or that their complaint was not adequately addressed.

“Ways of reporting concerns whilst working on our productions, protocols around behaviour and training for both cast and crew, have improved exponentially in recent years and we constantly review welfare procedures across our productions to ensure that they are as robust as they can be.”

Sean “Diddy” Combs is set to be sentenced over prostitution-related charges next week.

The hip-hop mogul has already served just over a year in prison after being arrested in New York in September 2023.

Following his high-profile trial earlier in 2025, he was found guilty of two counts of transportation for engagement in prostitution – but cleared of the more serious charges of sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

Combs, 55, was one of the most influential hip-hop producers of the 1990s and 2000s, the founder of Bad Boy Records and a Grammy-winning artist in his own right.

Now, he faces up to 20 years in jail – although his defence team is arguing for much less.

Here is everything you need to know ahead of his sentencing.

What is transportation to engage in prostitution?

During the trial, the court heard details of sexual encounters called “freak offs” by Combs – also referred to as “hotel nights” – which involved his girlfriends and male sex workers.

The rapper would “orchestrate” these encounters between the women and the sex workers, while he watched. Sometimes, these sessions would take place in different states across the US, as well as abroad, and Combs would pay for the sex workers and the women to travel.

He was found guilty of two charges – one relating to sex workers he paid for while in a relationship with singer and model Cassie Ventura, and another relating to sex workers who took part in sessions with Jane*, a woman he was later in a relationship with who was not identified during the trial.

The charges fall under America’s Mann Act, which prohibits interstate commerce related to prostitution.

What about the other charges?

Combs was found not guilty of two counts of sex-trafficking, relating to both Cassie and Jane, and one count of racketeering conspiracy.

This means while jurors believed Combs broke the law over using sex workers, they did not find the sexual encounters involving the women were non-consensual, which is what prosecutors had argued.

Both Cassie and Jane gave evidence, telling the court they felt manipulated and coerced, and sometimes blackmailed, into taking part in the freak offs during their relationships with the rapper. However, defence lawyers argued these were consensual encounters and part of a “swingers lifestyle”.

“The men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily,” defence lawyers said in legal submissions after the verdict. “The verdict confirms the women were not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted during the freak offs or hotel nights.”

What is racketeering?

Racketeering broadly means engaging in an illegal scheme or enterprise, and the charge falls under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act (RICO) in the US. According to the US justice department’s definition of RICO statute, it is also illegal to “conspire to violate” the laws.

Prosecutors alleged Combs led a racketeering conspiracy “that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice, among other crimes”. However, jurors also cleared him of this charge.

Had he been found guilty of the more serious charges, he could have faced life in prison.

Will Combs be jailed for 20 years?

Each charge of transportation to engage in prostitution carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, so in theory he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

However, it is thought his sentence will be less than this. Following the verdict, prosecutors said he should be sentenced to at least four to five years.

The music mogul has been denied bail several times since his arrest and again since the trial.

What do his lawyers say?

Following the trial verdict, both prosecutors and the defence team have made arguments to the judge about sentencing.

Most recently, Combs’s lawyers submitted a legal submission to the court calling for the rapper to be jailed for no more than 14 months – which after time already served would mean him walking free almost immediately.

Before this, they called for Combs to be acquitted or for a retrial on the prostitution-related charges. The US government “painted him as a monster”, they said, but argued his two-month trial showed the allegations were “not supported by credible evidence”.

The rapper’s lawyers have argued that, to their knowledge, he is “the only person” ever convicted of the Mann Act charges for the conduct he was accused of in court.

What has the judge said?

Judge Arun Subramanian, who presided over the trial, will decide Combs’s fate.

He has previously decided several times not to grant bail, saying the hip-hop mogul’s team have failed to show sufficient evidence he is not a flight risk and also citing admissions of previous violence made during the trial.

During her opening statement, Teny Geragos, who is on Combs’s defence team, described him as “a complicated man” and conceded he could be violent. However, she argued, this was not the charge against him.

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Despite being convicted of the prostitution-related charges, his lawyers hailed the verdict a “victory”, given he was cleared of the more serious allegations. In interviews since, they have said he is planning a return to music with a New York gig.

However, in legal submissions, they have also said the trial brought Combs “unspeakable shame and monumental adverse consequences” and that his “legacy has been destroyed”.

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After allegations against him were made public, Combs was removed from the boards at three charter schools he created in Harlem, the Bronx and Connecticut and was also stripped of an honorary doctorate degree from Howard University, which plans to return his prior donations, they said.

He was also forced to return the key to the city of New York that was previously presented to him by the mayor, and his career has “collapsed”.

As well as this case, he is also still facing several civil lawsuits – and has “mounting legal bills” from defending these and the criminal charges, his lawyers have said.