J.K Rowling recently talked about her relationship with her first husband Jorge Arantes. The famous writer revealed how she came close to losing the first Harry Potter manuscript because of her ex-partner. She said that the experience was violent and controlling, claiming that the Portuguese former reporter threatened her on several occasions.
J.K Rowling opens up on the matter
In the podcast ‘The Witch Trials’, Rowling noted that he led her to make the decision to take copies of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ and keep them out of the house, since Arantes warned her to burn the manuscripts:
“He’s not a stupid person,” she noted.
“I think he knew, or suspected, that I was going to bolt again. It was a horrible state of tension to live in.
“He knew what that manuscript meant to me, because at a point, he took the manuscript and hid it, and that was his hostage.
“When I realised that I was going to go – this was it, I was definitely going – I would take a few pages of the manuscript into work every day.
“Just a few pages, so he wouldn’t realise anything was missing, and I would photocopy it. And gradually, in a cupboard in the staff room, bit by bit, a photocopied manuscript grew and grew and grew.
