J.K. Rowling Denies Any Link to Jeffrey Epstein After Broadway Ticket Claims

Author J.K. Rowling has spoken out to shut down online rumors linking her to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, after newly released U.S. Justice Department files sparked social media backlash.

The controversy began when documents showed that Epstein received tickets to the official Broadway opening of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in April 2018 — years after his earlier conviction. Critics online quickly claimed that Rowling herself must have invited him.

Rowling strongly denied this. Responding directly to a user on X, she called the claim “beyond silly” and said clearly that neither she nor anyone on her team ever met, contacted, or invited Epstein to any event.

Further details from the Department of Justice files paint a very different picture. The tickets were not sent by Rowling at all. Instead, they were issued by the show’s producers after a request from Epstein associate Peggy Siegal, who emailed producer Colin Callender asking for tickets on behalf of a “very important friend.”

According to Callender, he had no idea that the unnamed guest was Epstein. He later confirmed to Deadline, that he did not know who the tickets were for at the time.

In the end, Epstein never even made it inside the theater. Emails included in the files show that although he was sent tickets, his name was not on the official guest list. The next morning, he wrote that he “couldn’t get in,” adding casually that it was “no biggy.”

The documents make clear that Rowling had no involvement in the ticket request — and that Epstein was ultimately turned away from the event altogether.