J.K. Rowling reported to police for ‘misgendering’ trans news anchor

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The first transgender national news anchor in the U.K. has filed a police complaint against Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling over alleged transphobia.

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India Willoughby, a former Celebrity Big Brother contestant and TV presenter, reported Rowling for repeatedly “misgendering” her as a “man” on social media.

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The 58-year-old broadcaster said she “contacted Northumbria Constabulary” over a series of X posts by the author.

Rowling has repeatedly declined to use Willoughby’s preferred pronouns and has openly mocked Willoughby, who underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2015.

In an interview with Byline TV, Willoughby claimed she had a “cut and dry” complaint against Rowling, arguing she had been repeatedly misgendered by the writer.

In recent days, Rowling has repeatedly declined to use Willoughby’s preferred pronouns and has openly mocked the broadcaster in posts on Twitter, now X.

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“The mask is off,” Willoughby told Byline TV on Wednesday. “People historically have given her the benefit of the doubt, hearing that all she is doing is defending women’s rights.”

She continued: “She can’t argue that anymore now that she’s actually come out and broadly said to me that India Willoughby is a man.”

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Rowling had “definitely committed a crime,” Willoughby claimed in the interview, insisting the author was guilty of a “cut-and-dry offence.”

Willoughby elaborated: “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.”

The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service states that hostility based on transgender identity can be prosecuted as a hate crime.

“On Monday, March 4, we received a complaint about a post on social media,” a Northumbria Police spokesperson told Variety. “We are currently awaiting to speak to the complainant further.”

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Rowling took to X to hit back, arguing that her lawyers advised her that Willoughby’s “obsessive targeting of me over the past few years may meet the legal threshold for harassment.”

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The best-selling author added: “I ignored this advice because I couldn’t be bothered giving India the publicity he so clearly craves.

“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.”

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Rowling also pointed to a 2021 employment tribunal ruling that found researcher Maya Forstater’s gender-critical views were a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act.

“No law compels anyone to pretend to believe that India is a woman,” Rowling said.

The author first sparked backlash among the transgender community in 2019 when she supported Forstater, who was fired for making anti-trans comments.

The following year, Rowling wrote an essay railing against “current trans activism,” which she claimed was “pushing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender.”

Last year, Willoughby posted on X, “I’m more of a woman than JK Rowling will ever be.”

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