JK Rowling has revealed her abusive ex-husband hid the manuscript for the first Harry Potter novel in a bid to stop her from leaving him. The author said Portuguese TV reporter Jorge Arantes kept the pages of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone like a "hostage" and she feared he would burn them.
After discovering where the manuscript was, she secretly started photocopying a few pages each day to ensure her work would not be lost. Rowling, 57, married Arantes in 1992 after meeting him in a bar in Portugal where she had moved to work as a teacher following her mother's death.
The couple had a daughter Jessica, now 29, but she left in 1993 after Arantes dragged her out of their home and attacked her. She said: "The marriage had turned very violent and very controlling. He was searching my handbag every time I came home and I didn't have a key to my own front door.
