Harry Potter author JK Rowling has opened up about the abuse she suffered from her ex-husband, saying he tried to hide the manuscript of the first book in the series from her so she wouldn’t be able to leave him. Guardian writes, quoted by News.ro.

Joan Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novelsPhoto: Yui Mok / PA Images / Profimedia

Speaking on the J.K. Rowling Witch Trials podcast series, which launched on Tuesday, the author described her relationship with Jorge Arantes as abusive and controlling, saying she had to sneak pages of the novel out of the house to make photocopies in case he had them. would be burned

“He checked my bag every time I came home. I didn’t have a key to my own front door because he has to control the door. And I believe that he is not a bad person. I think he knew or suspected that I would try again,” she said.

Rowling described living in a “terrible state of tension” with Arantes as she had to hide her desire to leave him. “And yet the manuscript continued to grow. I continued to write. He actually knew what that manuscript meant to me, because at one point he took the manuscript and hid it, and it became his hostage.”

More and more determined to leave it, she “secretly took pages from the manuscript to work every day—just a few pages so she wouldn’t notice that nothing was missing—and photocopied them.”

She added: “Little by little, in a cupboard in the staff room, a photocopied manuscript grew, because I suspected that if I failed at all, I would either burn it or save it.”

“This manuscript still means so much to me. This is what I prioritized for salvation. The only thing that mattered other than that was obviously my daughter, but at that point she was still inside me, so she was as safe as possible in that situation.”

Rowling spoke with Megan Phelps-Roper, a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church who is known for her hostile views and frequent protests against the LGBT community and other marginalized people. In 2012, Megan Phelps-Roper renounced “a life marked by religious extremism.”

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