JK Rowling says she 'never set out to upset anyone' after making controversial comments on transgender issues

JK Rowling has told fans she 'never set out to upset anyone' after making controversial comments on transgender issues in the past.

It comes as the 57-year-old Harry Potter took part in a new podcast series, The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, which is set for release later this month, the PA news agency reports.

Rowling has previously been criticised for her staunch views on gender identity, which she has shared on social media. She has previously tweeted that she has received 'so many death threats I could paper the house with them.'

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Speaking in the trailer for the podcast, which is hosted by author and activist Megan Phelps-Roper, Rowling said: "I never set out to upset anyone. However I was not uncomfortable with getting off my pedestal.

"And what has interested me over the last 10 years, and certainly over the past few years, two, three years, particularly on social media, ‘You’ve ruined your legacy. You could have been beloved forever but you chose to say this’.

"And I think, you could not have misunderstood me more profoundly."

In a series of tweets about the upcoming podcast series, Rowling said she had agreed to take part in the project, after being approached by former member of the Westboro Baptist Church Phelps-Roper, because she felt the pair could have a "real, interesting, two-sided conversation that might prove constructive."

After leaving the Westboro Baptist Church, known for its hateful views and frequent protests against the LGBT community and other marginalised communities, in 2012, Phelps-Roper wrote Unfollow.

The memoir details her experience of "loving and leaving extremism." Rowling’s comments in the trailer come shortly