While JK Rowling is most famously known for the wonderful wizarding world she conjured, her own life story has also been filled with trials and tribulations. Her life before she found success with her books was certainly not easy, and even though she is now at a place where she has fortune and fame, she finds herself embroiled in controversy often times. Mostly due to her polarising comments on transgender issues. Her controversial remarks have even led to tense relationships between her and Harry Potter stars like Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson.
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Through all the turbulence that's always in the spotlight, she's had the support of one man for 23 years—a rarity in the world of the famed. Her marriage to doctor Neil Murray remains discreet yet solid, a sharp contrast to her turbulent first relationship with Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes.
Who is JK Rowling with now? Inside her life with Neil Murray
JK Rowling has been married to Dr Neil Murray since 2001. The couple met in Edinburgh in the early 2000s after being introduced by Rowling’s sister. At the time, Murray was a senior house officer in anaesthetics and recently divorced. Rowling, having already achieved fame with the Harry Potter series, was still healing from her first marriage. Despite her fame, Murray had only read the first ten pages of her book, which Rowling reportedly found refreshing.
They kept their relationship private, eventually marrying in a low-key ceremony on Boxing Day 2001 at Rowling’s Perthshire mansion. As reported by Daily Mail, only 15 close family and friends attended, including Rowling’s daughter Jessica and Murray’s sister Lorna.
In public, the couple rarely appear together, but Rowling has shared glimpses into their relationship. Marking their 23rd anniversary in December 2024, she posted a sunny photograph of them embracing, captioned:
Married 23 years today 💖
When a follower commented 'Do you think you’ll keep him?', she cheekily replied, 'I’ve lost the receipt, so I’ll have to.'
Their humour and bond are evident. In another post, Rowling joked:
My husband just told me he voted for Poland while I was making tea. A reminder that you never *really* know another human being.
Her affection is clear as she once responded to a fan’s question about the secret to a happy marriage with a quote:
As Iris Murdoch said, never get married until you can’t believe your luck.
Murray has also supported Rowling during challenging times. Amid online abuse and threats, she shared that after reading a hateful comment to him, he said something that made her 'laugh so hard I nearly coughed up a kidney.'
A doctor with over 20 years of experience, Murray even assisted Rowling with medical accuracy in her Cormoran Strike novels. His only rare public statement came in a documentary where he described Rowling under stress:
Jo detaches. When she’s very stressed, she’ll detach herself and only trust one person, and that’s herself. So everyone else gets blocked out and she becomes more and more stressed and less and less able to accept any help.
In Murray, JK Rowling seems to have found her perfect match, however her love life wasn't always this rock solid.
The truth about Rowling's past: Her turbulent marriage to Jorge Arantes
Her first marriage to Jorge Arantes was starkly different from the life she now shares with Neil Murray.
Before Neil, Rowling was married to Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes. Their relationship was short-lived and deeply troubled. They married in the early 1990s and had a daughter, Jessica, in 1993. But by 1994, the marriage ended.
Rowling has spoken candidly about the abuse she suffered. On The Witch Trials of JK Rowling podcast, she recalled:
There came a night where he became very angry with me and I cracked and I said, ‘I want to leave.’ He became very violent and he said, ‘You can leave but you’re not getting Jessica, I’m keeping her, I will hide her.’ So I put up a fight and I paid the price. There was a violent scene which terminated with me lying in the street.
She feared for her work as well. Arantes reportedly tried to control her manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Rowling photocopied the pages in case he tried to destroy them. Arantes, speaking to Mail Online, denied such claims:
I deny it. It doesn’t make any sense. Why would I do something like that?
When she was writing the book, I was participating in it.
I was very involved with the first one and she knows that.
However, in an interview with The Sun, he admitted to violence:
I slapped Joanne – but there was not sustained abuse. I’m not sorry for slapping her… She refused to go without Jessica and, despite my saying she could come back for her in the morning, there was a violent struggle.
I had to drag her out of the house… and I admit I slapped her very hard in the street.
The situation forced Rowling to leave a home she bought with her own earnings after her ex-husband broke in. She later said:
The reason we left the first place was my ex-husband arrived and broke in. Moving became quite a pressing issue.
JK Rowling's children: Kept away from the spotlight
While JK Rowling has been candid about her struggles, she does keep a lot of her life private—especially when it comes to her children.
Rowling is a mother to three children: Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes, born in 1993, and her two younger children with Neil Murray – David Gordon Rowling Murray, born in 2003, and Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, born in 2005. Despite her global fame, she has consistently protected their privacy.
Jessica’s early years were challenging. As Rowling described to The Guardian in 2000:
I just never expected to mess up so badly that I would find myself in an unheated, mouse-infested flat, looking after my daughter. And I was angry because I felt I was letting her down.
Jessica, who shares her name with one of Rowling’s favourite authors, Jessica Mitford, has largely stayed out of public view. In recent years, false reports have circulated online about her identity and private life. According to Medium, Rowling responded to claims made by the fan page Wizarding News about Jessica’s supposed estrangement and motherhood, denying the allegations and even threatening legal action. Jessica has never confirmed these claims and remains extremely private.
Her younger siblings, David and Mackenzie, are also kept away from the media. Rowling has chosen not to share photos or personal details about them. However, they are all mentioned in the dedications of her Harry Potter books. In Order of the Phoenix, she wrote:
Neil, Jessica and David, who make my world magical.
And in Half-Blood Prince, she wrote:
To Mackenzie, my beautiful daughter, I dedicate her ink and paper twin.
Read more:
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Sources used:
Hello! Magazine: Inside JK. Rowling's 23-year marriage she keeps out of the spotlight
Daily Mail: How JK Rowling's doctor husband has become her rock in the face of an avalanche of death threats from militant trans activists - and even helped out on her latest book series
Style Magazine: Harry Potter fans are counting down the days (well, years) until the release of HBO’s TV series adaptation of the famous books by J.K. Rowling – but who are her children?
Medium: Who Is J.K. Rowling’s Daughter, Jessica Rowling? She May Not Be Who You Think She Is
