“That was his hostage”: Harry Potter Author J.K. Rowling Was Forced To Smuggle Her Harry Potter Manuscript Out of Her Home When Abusive Ex-Husband Tried Burning the Whole Thing
Harry Potter is one of the most successful movie series to exist. It has been there for years and holds an emotional place in people’s hearts. Some are connected to the characters of Harry Potter in a way that is hard to describe. The movies are based on the novels by J. K. Rowling of the same name.
The author dropped an audio documentary in which she shared some gruesome details of her life. The fans were shocked to know Harry Potter would have never happened. Rowling was in an abusive marriage that almost cost her the most precious thing, her Harry Potter manuscript. Luckily she found a way to save her work from her violent and controlling partner.
J. K. Rowling smuggled the Harry Potter manuscript from home
The Harry Potter movie series is one of the most successful franchises. It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. There are eight fantastic films based on the amazing novels by J. K. Rowling.
In The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling, an audio documentary, Rowling shed light on her personal life. In the first episode of the documentary, she shared how her first marriage almost cost her Harry Potter.
The famous author was abused by her first husband, Jorge Arantes. He threatened her using their daughter and the manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The Portuguese former reporter hid the pages of her novel and threatened of burning it all if Rowling was to leave him.
It led the 57-year-old now-acclaimed author to take pages of her book away from home. Slowly, she started photocopying them in small bundles so her husband wouldn’t suspect anything. The podcast was released this week as part of a project exploring Rowling’s controversial modern legacy. In that, she also revealed some details of her life.
The author wanted out of the marriage and described her situation as horrible. She said, “I think he knew, or suspected, that I was going to bolt again. It was a horrible state of tension to live in.”
When the author finally made up her mind to leave Arantes, she suspected of him burning down the manuscript that meant everything to her. She decided to preserve it. Rowling started smuggling a few pages from the manuscript and took them to work every day. She would photocopy these pages and keep them in a cupboard to keep the manuscript safe.
She revealed,
“I would take a few pages of the manuscript into work every day — just a few pages so he wouldn’t realize anything was missing — and I would photocopy it. And gradually in a cupboard in the staff room, bit by bit, a photocopied manuscript grew and grew and grew.”
Thankfully, her wise thinking gave us eight blockbuster books, movies, and a world full of magic. Rowling got the idea to create Harry Potter on a train from Manchester to London in 1990, at the age of 25. The first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997.
The author was emotionally and physically abused by her first husband
The 57-year-old met Jorge Arantes in Portugal in 1992. They got married in October 1992 and welcomed a daughter, Jessica, in 1993. After the birth of their daughter, the couple hit a rough patch and separated in November 1993.
Rowling has been open about the abuse she faced, emotionally and physically, from her former husband. She filed for divorce in August 1994 and was granted custody of their daughter. She tried to leave her first husband serval times, succeeded in the process, but still ended up being together. Rowling also admitted to him slapping her in an interview. She described a sense of isolation and lack of control during their marriage.
The author notified the police and left her ex-husband for good, moving on with her daughter in 1993. Soon her first book was released in 1997, and her journey to become a renowned author began.
Read More: 5 Controversies Around JK Rowling That Will Shock You!
Source: The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling
