‘Big Brother’ Host Reported J.K. Rowling to Police for Misgendering Her

British TV presenter India Willoughby said she reported author J.K. Rowling to local authorities for repeatedly publicly misgendering her.

In the past week, a long-standing online feud between the two has boiled over, and Rowling has repeatedly shared X posts that misgender Willoughby, who transitioned in 2015.

In an interview with Byline, Willoughby said she'd gone to authorities over the tweets. “J.K. Rowling has definitely committed a crime,” the Big Brother host said. “I’m legally a woman, she knows I’m a woman, and she calls me a man.”

Willoughby said she’d reported the author to the Northumbria Constabulary. “At the end of the day, it is a hate crime,” Willoughby said. In the U.K., gender reassignment is a protected characteristic, and hostility based on a person’s transgender identity can be prosecuted as a hate crime, according to the CPS.

Rowling responded on X, accusing Willoughby of defamation and harassment, and saying that she would tell the police that, “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.”

Rowling also claimed that her “gender critical views” are protected under the law as a philosophical belief. In the past few years, Rowling has leaned hard into her brand of trans-exclusionary feminism, leading scores of fans to turn against her and her recent projects.

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