JK Rowling’s abusive former husband has accused the novelist of being ‘delirious’ – after she claimed that he hid the unpublished manuscript of the first Harry Potter novel to stop her leaving him.
In a sensational podcast, the multi-millionaire author said ‘controlling’ former Portuguese TV reporter Jorge Arantes kept the pages of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone ‘hostage’ as their marriage broke down.
Talking on ‘The Witch Trials of JK Rowling’ she said she even feared he ‘would burn the pages’ – and started secretly photocopying them to protect them in case they were lost.
But disgraced Arantes, 54, who has admitted slapping his ex-wife during their turbulent marriage, denied that he had even taken the book – and even made the extraordinary claim he helped write it.
In a bizarre rant from his home in Portugal, he said: ‘I don’t know why she is saying what she is now, maybe she is delirious from three years of Covid lockdown.
JK Rowling’s former husband Jorge Arantes (pictured outside his Porto home this week) has claimed he participated in the writing of the first Harry Potter book
Rowling married Arantes in 1992 after meeting him in a bar in Portugal where she had moved to work as a teacher following her mother’s death
‘I was surprised when I read about this. I deny it. It doesn’t make any sense. Why would I do something like that? Maybe you should ask her.’
JK Rowling revealed her abusive ex-husband hid the manuscript for the first Harry Potter novel in a bid to stop her from leaving him
Seemingly trying to take the credit for Rowling’s wildly successful Harry Potter series, he went on: ‘When she was writing the book, I was participating in it, she was reading it out to me, and I was reading it to her.
‘The first book was fascinating; the writing was wonderful, and I always liked it because we shared a passion for literature, and especially literature for children.
‘The project was for seven books, and I was very involved with the first one and she knows that. She started writing it when we were together.’
Arantes and Rowling, 57, tied the knot in 1992, in the Portuguese city of Porto, after a whirlwind romance, following a meeting in a bar after she had moved there to teach English.
Arantes is said to now live a solitary life in the same city where the former couple met more than 30 years ago – their love blossoming over their shared interest in Jane Austen.
A wedding certificate obtained by MailOnline, shows how the couple lived with Arantes mother Marilia Rodrigues – who died in 2020 aged 90 – in Porto.
Rowling moved to Portugal after her mother’s death and the couple had a daughter, Jessica, now 29 but she left him just a year later after he had dragged her out of the house and attacked her.
Ms Rowling, now happily married to Dr Neil Murray for the past 21 years, had hinted there had been violence in their short-lived relationship until 2020, when she revealed he had beaten her in the street.
When confronted by reporters he was unrepentant, admitting he hit her hard in the face and didn’t regret it.
Arantes also revealed that he has no relationship with his daughter.
On the podcast Rowling said: ‘The marriage had turned very violent and very controlling. He was searching my handbag every time I come home.
‘I haven’t got a key to my own front door because he’s got to control the front door. And I think he’s not a stupid person. I think he knew, or suspected, that I was going to try and bolt again.’
The former couple with their daughter Jessica, who is now 29 and uses the surname Rowling
Arantes (pictured), 52, did confess to slapping his ex-wife after she walked out on their brief marriage taking their daughter Jessica with her. He said he didn’t regret it
Rowling described living in ‘a horrible state of tension’ with Arantes because she had to hide her desire to leave him.
She went on: ‘And yet the manuscript kept growing. I’d continue to write. In fact, he knew what that manuscript meant to me because at one point he took the manuscript and hid it and that was his hostage.’
Rowling described how she became increasingly determined to leave, and she would secretly ‘take a few pages of the manuscript into work every day – just a few pages so that he wouldn’t realise anything was missing – and photocopy it’.
She said: ‘And gradually in a cupboard in the staff room, bit by bit, a photocopied manuscript grew and grew and grew, because I suspected that, if I wasn’t able to get out with everything, he would burn it or take it or hold it hostage.
‘That manuscript still meant so much to me. That was the thing that I actually prioritised for saving. The only thing I prioritised beyond that, obviously, was my daughter, but at that point she’s still inside me, so she’s as safe as can be in that situation.’
Describing the night she walked out on Arantes, Rowling said: ‘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.
‘I went to the police and filed a complaint and the next day went back to the house with the police and got Jessica.’
Arantes blasted his ex-wife Rowling as ‘delirious’ (pictured in Porto this week)
JK Rowling has found love and happiness with her second husband Dr Neil Murray (pictured together)
The Witch Trials of JK Rowling is a seven-part podcast in conversation with the author, hosted by American activist and journalist Megan Phelps-Roper
Megan Phelps-Roper (pictured), host of The Witch Trials of JK Rowling podcast
She said she had fiercely protected her privacy after becoming famous because of her fears of being tracked down by Arantes.
Rowling revealed he had followed her to Edinburgh and broken into the first home she bought with money from her publishing deal for her debut Potter novel, which was published in 1997.
She said: ‘I was so ill-equipped for what happened to me. It was changing faster than I could deal with and all the time I had this lurking fear because I know there is someone out there who does not wish me well.
‘The reason we left the first place was my ex-husband arrived and broke in. Moving became quite a pressing issue at that point.
‘I was trying to reconcile suddenly having a lot of press interest with really, really wanting to live under the radar for very concrete reasons.
‘I was living in a state of real tension I couldn’t express to many people.’
A spokesman for Rowling said the novelist did not want to comment on her ex-husband’s latest claims.
Arantes now lives alone in the first floor flat behind a cemetery and close to an arts school in the historical part of Porto.
For a time he lived in Paris with his brother who works as a travel agent.
While Rowling and Arantes share a daughter, Jessica, 29, they are not thought to have had any contact since the end of their marriage. Jessica uses the surname Rowling.
Neighbours told MailOnline in 2020 he rarely leaves the apartment and instead spends his days inside listening to loud music.
One said: ‘He does not get up very early, and sometimes we see him in the afternoon’.
Ms Rowling has been married to Dr Neil Murray since 2001 and the couple have two children.
But following Ms Rowling’s revelations in 2020, he told The Sun: ‘I slapped Joanne – but there was not sustained abuse.
‘I’m not sorry for slapping her.’
In an earlier conversation about the relationship he said: ‘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.’
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