Rupert Grint steps out for a stroll with partner Georgia Groome after his Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe reignited trans row with JK Rowling
Rupert Grint cut a casual figure as he stepped out for a stroll with his partner Georgia Groome in Notting Hill, London on Wednesday.
The actor, 35, opted for a laid back look for the day as he sported a black T-shirt with matching trousers and a dark jacket.
Georgia also kept it casual as she opted for a grey printed jumper with blue jeans and a pair of black shoes.
Rupert’s outing came soon after his Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe reignited his row with JK Rowling over transgender issues.
Daniel said his beliefs don’t have to align with the author’s just because she made him a star.
JK Rowling has been outspoken about her views on trans issues and has said biological sex is more important than gender identity.
Yet although Radcliffe admitted ‘nothing in my life’ would likely have happened if not for beloved author Rowling, 58, he said that didn’t mean he didn’t owes her ‘the things he truly believes’.
Rowling has faced frequent attacks online from the trans community for saying that biologically male trans women should not be allowed in women’s spaces.
Her spat with Radcliffe started after she called out an article that used the phrase ‘people who menstruate’ instead of women, writing: ‘I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?’
Shortly afterwards, Radcliffe penned an article for an LGBT+ suicide prevention charity that said ‘transgender women are women’.
Despite Daniel’s view that trans women are women, just this week it was revealed the NHS will declare sex is biological.
It came after the Cass report found there is ‘remarkably weak evidence’ for gender-affirming techniques in children such as puberty blockers.
It also said that ‘for the majority of young people, a medical pathway may not be the best way’ to help when they are ‘presenting with gender incongruence or distress’.
This week he told The Atlantic he had not spoken to Rowling for years, which upset him.
Yet despite the Cass report and Rowling’s suggestion he should apologise to detransitioners harmed by puberty blockers, Radcliffe refused.
Instead, he said: ‘I will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ people, and have no further comment than that.’
He said: ‘Jo, obviously Harry Potter would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person. But that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life.’
He added: ‘It makes me really sad, ultimately, because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.’
In response to the publication of the Cass report last month, Rowling insisted she wouldn’t forgive stars who had spoken out against her, including Daniel and his Harry Potter co-stars.
When one fan said they were ‘just waiting for Dan and Emma [Watson’ to offer a ‘very public apology’ knowing they’d be safe in the knowledge the author would forgive them, she wrote: ‘Not safe I’m afraid. Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces.’
Rupert has been less vocal about the divide between the Harry Potter author and the child stars of her films.
However, in January 2022, he did liken Rowling to an aunt who he doesn’t ‘necessarily agree with’ over her views on trans people.
He told The Sunday Times: ‘I liken JK Rowling to an auntie. I don’t necessarily agree with everything my auntie says, but she’s still my auntie. It’s a tricky one.’
Rupert was cast as Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone aged just 11.
He went on to star in all eight films, which ranged from 2001 to 2011, earning him at least $70 million (£52 million).
Elsewhere in the Sunday Times interview, Rupert Grint admitted he still finds it ‘very hard’ to ‘detach’ himself from Ron having played Harry Potter’s best friend for 10 years.
He explained: ‘I measure my life in Harry Potter movies. They’re so ingrained in me.
‘I find it very hard to detach myself from being Ron – we merged into the same person. I can’t believe it started 20 years ago. It definitely sculpted who I am.
‘I mentally closed the door on it even though I’m constantly faced with it – there’s the play, the theme park and it’s always on TV.’
