Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlin blasts author JK Rowling over anti-trans post
Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlin has blasted JK Rowling for celebrating the recent ruling by the UK’s Supreme Court that transgender women are not legally women.
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It’s safe to say Nicola Coughlan won’t be tuning in to the “Harry Potter” TV series.
The “Bridgerton” star blasted JK Rowling for celebrating the recent ruling by the UK’s Supreme Court that transgender women are not legally women.
“Keep your new Harry Potter lads,” Coughlan, 38, wrote on her Instagram Story on Friday, referring to the author’s forthcoming Max show.
“Wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole,” she added.
The actor’s message was accompanied by a post from New York Magazine’s online site The Cut, which argued that Rowling’s public celebration of the ruling was “a new low.”
“Of course, this kind of behaviour is nothing new from Rowling, who has long perpetuated harmful myths about trans people,” the website’s caption read in part.
“But celebrating the erasure of an entire group of women in such self-indulgent fashion feels extra evil, even for her.”
A “proud” Rowling, 59, took to X on Wednesday to applaud the “three extraordinary, tenacious Scottish women with an army behind them” for getting their case heard and thereby helping protect “the rights of women and girls across the UK.”
She also “toasted to” the For Women Scotland organisation and uploaded a photo of two glasses of champagne before announcing, “Think I might be having a cigar later.”
I love it when a plan comes together.#SupremeCourt#WomensRightspic.twitter.com/agOkWmhPgb
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 16, 2025
Think I might be having a cigar later. #SupremeCourt#WomensRights
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 16, 2025
The court’s five judges agreed in the landmark decision that “the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’” under the UK’s 2010 Equality Act “refer to a biological woman and biological sex.”
The ruling “does not remove protection from trans people,” who are “protected from discrimination on the ground of gender reassignment,” the court insisted, noting that a transgender person with documentation recognising them as female should not be considered a woman for equality purposes.
The next day, Coughlan uploaded an Instagram video in which she explained how “completely horrified” she was by the decision.
“To see an already marginalised community be further attacked — and attacked in law — is really stomach-turning and disgusting,” she told her followers.
“And to see people celebrate it is more stomach-turning and disgusting.”
The Irish star then raised more than $68,000 for the “incredible trans charity” Not a Phase.
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