JK Rowling alleges ex-husband held Harry Potter manuscript ‘hostage,’ discusses her terrible first marriage

In the first episode of her new podcast Witch Trials of JK Rowling, author JK Rowling discusses her terrible first marriage. The first edition of the podcast was released on Tuesday, and it detailed the controversial author’s “terrible situation” with Jorge Arantes, including a “hugely traumatic” miscarriage that left her “not in a balanced frame of mind.” Rowling also said that her ex-husband had hidden the Harry Potter manuscript from her to keep her from leaving him.

“The situation was a bad situation, but until you go through it, you don’t know what you would choose to do,” said Rowling, 57, of the marriage, which lasted from 1992 to 1995. “I left him twice before I left for good, and then I went back twice.”

Her husband was very controlling and used to lock her in fear of her leaving him

She revealed that her marriage had “turned very violent and very controlling,” at that point, during which time Arantes was “searching my handbag every time I (came) home.”

Rowling claimed that her husband refused to give her the house key for fear of her leaving him.

“I haven’t got a key to my front door, because he’s gotta control the front door,” Rowling said. “He’s not a stupid person — I think he knew, or suspected, that I was gonna try and bolt again.”
Rowling said, “it was a horrible state of tension to live in because you have to act, and I don’t think I’m a very good actor; I don’t think I have a very good poker face.”
“And that was a huge strain — to act as though I wasn’t going. That’s a terrible way to live, and yet the manuscript kept growing; I had continued to write,” the author said. She went on to accuse Arantes, saying, “In fact, he knew what that manuscript meant to me because, at a point, he took the manuscript and hid it. And that was his hostage.”

JK Rowling stated that she used to hide manuscripts in her office cupboard

Rowling explained that she could take a few pages to her office at a time, make copies, and hide the manuscript in her office cupboard.

“…just a few pages so he wouldn’t realize anything was missing, and I would photocopy it,” she explained, adding that it was during this time that she decided to leave Arantes for good.

“And gradually, in a cupboard in the staff room, bit by bit, the photocopied manuscript grew and grew and grew, because I suspected that if I wasn’t able to get out with everything, he would burn it or take it or hold it, hostage,” she said.

Rowling stated that the text was “The only thing I prioritized above that was my daughter,” she said. But she’s still inside me at that time, so she’s as safe as she can be in that situation.” Jessica Rowling Arantes, the author’s daughter, is now 29 years old.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first novel in the series, was released in 1997.