JK Rowling claims ex-husband held Harry Potter manuscript 'hostage', talks of abusive first marriage

Author JK Rowling has opened up about her toxic first marriage in the first episode of her new podcast Witch Trials of JK Rowling. The first episode of the podcast dropped on Tuesday where the controversial author recalled being in a "bad situation" with Jorge Arantes, including a "hugely traumatic" miscarriage that left her "not in a balanced state of mind." Rowling also revealed that her ex-husband had even hid the Harry Potter manuscript from her in order to prevent her from leaving him.

"The situation was a bad situation, but until you actually go through it, you don't know what you would choose to do," said Rowling, 57, of the marriage, which lasted from 1992 to 1995. "I left him twice before I left for good, and then I went back twice."

She revealed that her marriage had "turned very violent and very controlling," at that point, during which time Arantes was "searching my handbag every time I (came) home."

Rowling said her husband would not give her the house key out of fear that she would walk out on him.

"I haven't got a key to my own front door, because he's gotta control the front door," Rowling said. "He's not a stupid person — I think he knew, or suspected, that I was gonna try and bolt again."

Rowling said, "it was a horrible state of tension to live in because you have to act, and I don't think I'm a very good actor; I don't think I have a very good poker face."

"And that was a huge strain — to act as though I wasn't going. That's a terrible way to live, and yet the manuscript kept growing; I had continued to write," the author said.

She went on to accuse Arantes, saying, "In fact, he knew what that manuscript meant to me because at a point, he took the manuscript and hid it. And that was his hostage."

Rowling stated that she could take a few pages at a time to her office, make copies and hid the manuscript in her office cupboard.

"...just a few pages so he wouldn't realize anything was missing, and I would photocopy it," she said and revealed that it was around then she made the decision to leave Arantes for good.

"And gradually, in a cupboard in the staff room, bit by bit, the 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," she said.

Rowling explained that the manuscript "still meant so much to" her, and that "the only thing I prioritized beyond that, obviously, was my daughter. But at that point, she's still inside me, so she's as safe as she can be in that situation." The author's daughterJessica Rowling Arantes isnow 29.

The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, was published in 1997.