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All About JK Rowling And Her Magical Life

Get to know the woman behind the wizarding world, JK Rowling!
J.K. Rowling and husband Neil Murray pictured at the opening day of "Harry Potter And The Cursed Child"
JK Rowling and husband Neil Murray
Getty

An entire generation has grown up reading and watching the Harry Potter series, following the Boy Who Lived as he fought dark wizards and brought peace back to the wizarding world. Harry Potter took the world by storm when it first came out in 1997, and again when it was released as a film in 2001.

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The lady behind this magical world is author JK Rowling, who has quite the biography herself: she’s gone from virtually penniless to being a billionaire! However, she actually lost her billionaire status due to all the donations she’s made to various charities. Read on to find out more about the woman behind the magic, JK Rowling!

RELATED: Emma Watson celebrates J.K. Rowling’s birthday with sweet post

What is JK Rowling’s Full Name?

JK Rowling stands for Joanne Kathleen Rowling. However, she doesn’t actually have a middle name – her real name is simply Joanne Rowling. She became known as JK Rowling when her publisher suggested that her first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, will appeal to a wider audience if it wasn’t obvious that she was a woman!

Since she didn’t have an actual middle name, she chose the name “Kathleen” which was her paternal grandmother’s name! But she doesn’t actually use the name outside of her writing, and she’s called “Jo” by close friends.

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JK Rowling pictured at the EE British Academy Film Awards
JK Rowling (Credit: Getty)

When Was JK Rowling Born?

JK Rowling’s date of birth is July 31, 1965! She shares her birthday with her protagonist Harry Potter, and is a fiery Leo!

How Old Is JK Rowling?

As of this writing, JK is 54 years of age. 

Where Was JK Rowling Born?

While she spent her early life in Gloucestershire, England, and in Chepstow, Wales, JK was born in Yate, which is near Bristol.

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Who Are JK Rowling’s Parents?

JK was born to Peter James Rowling, a Rolls-Royce aircraft engineer, and Anne Volant, a science technician. She was very close to her mother, and she says that the death of her mother after a ten-year battle with multiple sclerosis heavily influenced her writing.

JK Rowling with her mother and father at the degree ceremony
JK Rowling with her parents Peter and Anne (Credit: Getty)

Does JK Have Any Siblings?

Yes! Dianne Rowling is JK’s younger sister, born two years after her. JK’s earliest memory involves her younger sister: the day of her arrival!

Where Did JK Rowling Go To School?

JK Rowling attended St. Michael’s Primary School and Wyedean School and College for her primary and secondary education. It’s said that she actually based many of her characters, including Albus Dumbledore, on the people she met during her time here! She went on to finish a BA in French and Classics at the University of Exeter.

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Is JK Rowling Married?

Yes! She’s been married twice and divorced once. JK’s first marriage was in 1992, to a journalist she met during her time in Portugal, which ended after only one year. It would be years before she’d remarry; but in 2001, she tied the knot with a Scottish doctor.

Who Is JK Rowling’s Husband?

JK is currently married to Neil Murray. She uses her married name, Joanne Murray, for personal business.

J.K. Rowling and husband Neil Murray pictured at the opening day of
JK Rowling and husband Neil Murray (Credit: Getty)

Who Is JK Rowling’s Ex-Husband?

During her stint as an English teacher in Porto, Portugal, JK met Jorge Arantes. There have been rumours that the marriage was abusive, resulting in a divorce only a year later.

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Does JK Rowling Have Any Children?

From her first marriage, JK has one child, a daughter named Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes who was born on July 27, 1993. She went on to have two more kids with her second husband: her son David Gordon Rowling Murray was born on March 24, 2003, while her youngest daughter Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray was born January 23, 2005.

Where Does JK Rowling Live?

She currently resides in Scotland, in a gorgeous mansion located north of Edinburgh. The estate she lives in is called Killiechassie House, and she actually got married to husband Neil in its library!

What Books Has JK Rowling Written?

Of course, there’s the Harry Potter series that catapulted her to fame and fortune, but JK Rowling has actually written other books! She’s delved further into the wizarding world by writing Quidditch Through The Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard! JK has also written scripts and screenplays: The Cursed Child, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The Crimes of Grindelwald.

JK Rowling didn’t just stick to Harry Potter though. She wrote a novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy, in 2012. The year after, she started writing using the alias Robert Galbraith, launching the Cormoran Strike series. The series currently has four books: The Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm, Career of Evil, and Lethal White.

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J.K. Rowling doing a Harry Potter book reading on the White House Lawn
JK Rowling doing a book reading (Credit: Getty)

What Awards Has JK Rowling Won?

The Harry Potter series has garnered JK Rowling plenty of awards: the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year, and British Book of the Year just to name a few! She’s also been given awards for her overall contributions to culture and literature, such as the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award, and Freedom of the City of London.

Who Is JK Rowling’s Manager?

The Blair Partnership is her main agent, representing her across all media, from publishing, to film, to digital. For press and publicity concerns, Mark Hutchinson Management and StonehillSalt PR are her handlers.

What Is JK Rowling’s Net Worth?

JK’s not one to flaunt her wealth, and has been secretive about her net worth. However, we do have some idea: in 2017, she was ranked as Forbe’s third highest paid celebrity with an income of $USD95-million (around $AUD 140.3-million), and she continues to earn millions from books, films, and even the theme parks based on her work.

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JK Rowling did not start out as a wealthy woman, and it’s well-known that she was practically broke when she first started writing Harry Potter. Now, as an incredibly successful woman, she makes sure to give back: she donated so much to charity that she was actually bumped off Forbes’ billionaire list!

Has JK Rowling Been In Any Movies?

She’s helped write some of the most successful films ever, but she hasn’t actually acted in any. She does have one “actress” credit on her IMDB page: as herself in an episode of The Simpsons!

What Are JK Rowling’s Hobbies?

Other than writing, JK Rowling’s hobbies include cooking and baking.

What Are The Famous JK Rowling Quotes?

Just from her books, JK Rowling already has plenty of quotable quotes. But her life has proven to be an inspirational one, with her going from welfare-dependent to multi-millionaire in the span of a few years. As such, she has a plethora of famous quotes from her many interviews and speeches.

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“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

“Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.”

“It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.”

“I believe in free will. Of those that, like us, are in a privileged situation at least. For you, for me: people who are living in western society, people who are not repressed, who are free. We can choose. The things go largely like you want them to go. You control your own life. Your own will is extremely powerful.”

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Is JK Rowling On Social Media?

Yes! She is fairly active on her Twitter account, where you can follow the latest news about her and her works.

Has JK Rowling Been Involved In Any Famous Twitter Spats?

Being quite active on Twitter and unafraid to speak her mind, it’s quite inevitable that JK Rowling ends up in a Twitter spat. In 2016, she ended up in an exchange with Glasgow East MP Natalie McGarry, who accused her of defending “abusive misogynist trolls”. JK had demanded an explanation, an apology, and even threatened to sue: “You don’t appear to understand how Twitter or defamation works. I’m going to help you out with the latter.”

In 2017, JK tweeted “Yes, watching Piers Morgan being told to fuck off on live TV is *exactly* as satisfying as I’d always imagined,” followed by a link to a clip where Piers Morgan defends US President Donald Trump’s travel ban and Jim Jefferies lashes back at him. Piers Morgan responded to the tweet, and it quickly turned into a glorious back-and-forth that ended with JK tweeting about how she had beat Piers Morgan in the British Book Awards.

What’s Next For JK Rowling?

She’s definitely left her mark on the world and helped define an entire generation, but JK Rowling shows no signs of slowing down. She continues to write, and fans will just have to eagerly anticipate what she’ll come up with next, whether it’s part of the wizarding world or something completely different but equally magical.

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