JK Rowling has reignited her long-running feud with Nicola Sturgeon after the former First Minister’s recent BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg.
During the discussion, Sturgeon attempted to distance herself from the actions of her former husband, Peter Murrell, who admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP. She argued that women should not be held accountable for the actions of the men in their lives and insisted she bore no responsibility for his crimes.
Sturgeon said she felt as though she was “serving a sentence for a crime I didn’t commit” following Murrell’s guilty plea. At several points during the interview, she appeared emotional as she reflected on gifts she had received from her former husband, which were later found to have been purchased using stolen party funds.
“I am not responsible for the crimes my former husband committed, and I’m not going to apologise for someone else’s wrongdoing,” she told Kuenssberg.
Sturgeon has repeatedly maintained that she knew nothing about Murrell’s activities, which took place between 2010 and 2022 and involved SNP funds being spent on luxury vehicles, household items and other personal purchases.
The pair have since separated, and Sturgeon has stepped away from frontline politics, relocating from Scotland to London.
Following the interview, Rowling seized on what she viewed as a contradiction in Sturgeon’s defence. Responding on X, the Harry Potter author wrote sarcastically: “Nicola’s just decided she knows what a man and a woman are, after all.”
The remark is the latest chapter in a years-long dispute between the two women, largely centred on transgender rights and the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill.
The controversial legislation, which sought to make it easier for people to legally change their gender, passed through Holyrood before being blocked by Westminster over concerns about its effect on UK-wide equality laws.
Rowling was one of the bill’s most vocal critics, arguing that the proposals risked undermining protections for women by allowing biological males access to female-only spaces.
Sturgeon, meanwhile, has consistently defended self-identification rights, although she later admitted she regretted not pausing the legislation in an attempt to reduce tensions around the debate.
“We’d lost all sense of rationality in this debate. I’m partly responsible for that,” she previously told ITV News.
Their bitter disagreement has extended beyond politics. Rowling also published a lengthy critique of Sturgeon’s memoir on her personal website, accusing the former First Minister of being “flat-out Trumpian” in her handling of transgender issues.
The author argued that Sturgeon’s approach had caused lasting harm by creating an environment in which women with opposing views felt silenced, shamed and unfairly targeted. Rowling also compared Sturgeon’s criticism of gender reform opponents to Hillary Clinton’s controversial “basket of deplorables” comment.
According to Rowling, such rhetoric unfairly stigmatised sexual assault survivors, lesbians, disabled women and others concerned about privacy, safety and fairness in female spaces.
Despite the criticism, Sturgeon has continued to defend her record, insisting that her decisions as First Minister were made in what she believed were the best interests of the country.
