JK Rowling admits one heartbreaking image led her to huge decision | Personal Finance | Finance

A heart-wrenching black and white photo stirred JK Rowling so much it prompted her to donate a staggering £63 million, the Harry Potter author has revealed.

In a new interview, she said that in the summer of 2004, while at home reading a newspaper, she was struck by the image of a young boy, head shorn and face pressed against mesh. She admits that her initial instinct upon seeing the photograph was to “turn the page”, yet she compelled herself to read it.

The child, identified as Vasek Knotek, turned out to be confined in a cage and was the focus of an article discussing the cruel conditions in certain orphanages. Speaking to The Sunday Times, where she read that article, Rowling said she had a “visceral reaction” to the sight of children “abandoned, abused and alone”.

The novelist, who is also a mother of three, said: “The image of that little boy screaming through what looked like chicken wire was so distressing. It remains burnt into my brain. I was pregnant with my youngest, and I think it hit me all the harder because of that.”

Not long after this revelation, Rowling reached out to both the Czech ambassador to Britain and the country’s prime minister to encourage reform. She also penned letters to the one-time fundraising head for Save the Children and MEP Baroness Nicholoson of Winterbourne.

Rowling, together with her co-founder, began the Children’s High Level Group charity a year after their collaboration began, renaming it Lumos in 2010 – a tribute to a spell in her famous Harry Potter series that ignites light amid darkness. Now, 21 years on, Rowling has generously contributed £63 million to Lumos, with funds stemming from both her personal fortune and the proceeds of her globally celebrated Harry Potter works.

The charity’s impact is profound. It has supported more than 280,000 children across a spectrum of regions including Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Colombia, and Haiti. Rowling has emphasised the significance of witnessing early childhood development firsthand, and said: “When that door closes, it’s very hard for children to develop into emotionally stable, functioning adults.”

She added “We now have 80 years of meticulous international research to show that institutionalised children have vastly poorer outcomes than children raised in families. So intervention is critical, and the earlier the better. Neglect not only causes cognitive harm, it exposes children to a higher risk of abuse and exploitation.”

In the same interview, Rowling reflected on a 2006 visit to an orphanage in Prague where she encountered a young girl in need of proper care. This experience brought home to her the ease with which such neglected youngsters can become ensnared by abuse and human trafficking.

The celebrated author of the Harry Potter series has spoken candidly about her past financial struggles and the challenges she faced as a single mother. She came from what she termed a “lower middle class” background, and said she fled an abusive marriage in the early 90s before she found herself in Edinburgh in 1993 with her four-month-old daughter Jessica.

Rowling said: “I literally went hungry at times because I prioritised feeding my daughter, but that wasn’t the worst of it. It’s the daily indignities – overwhelmingly, not being able to give your child the things you’d like. I remember meeting another mum whose son was the same age as my daughter. He had a roomful of toys. I had a shoebox in which Jessica’s two toys lived. It’s that kind of thing that really gets to you.”

In addition to her literary success, Rowling has made significant charitable contributions, donating over £86 million to causes aimed at reducing social deprivation for women and children, who she notes are more vulnerable to dangerous situations. Her charity Volant, established in 2000, focuses on aiding victims of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and rape.

The generosity of Rowling extended to her donating more than £12 million in royalties from her children’s fairytale The Ickabog in 2020, funds that were directed towards supporting parents affected by the Covid pandemic through her charity.

Vasek’s escape from a Czech orphanage, with the aid of Lumos, came amid a significant improvement in the country’s social services. Rowling said: “They stopped using caged beds as a result of our intervention, so that was a triumph.”

She also emphasised the impact of those directly affected, saying: “I’ve met a ton of children affiliated to Lumos who are now our advocates. They are beyond important voices in the campaign because they really tug at your heartstrings. Their stories are heart-rending.”