Harry Potter author JK Rowling has been bathed in controversy in recent years, and though the precarious circumstances surrounding the creation of the first book are well-known, they’re perhaps even more dire than we thought. As spotted by People, in the first episode of a recent podcast, Rowling said that at one point her ex-husband Jorge Arantes stole her manuscript and hid it from her as a “hostage.”

Rowling accused Arantes of being “violent and controlling,” as well as searching her person every time she came home. She also claimed that she did not have a key to her own house, and that Arantes would burn, steal, or otherwise destroy the in-progress manuscript of the first Harry Potter book in order to control her.

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