Harry Potter actress Emma Watson has been banned from driving for six months. Her licence has been revoked for breaking traffic rules. As per a report in BBC, she drove an Audi at 38mph in a 30mph zone in Oxford on the evening of July 31, 2024.
On Wednesday, the case was heard at High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court, which ordered Watson to pay a fine of £1,044 ($1,405). The actress already had nine penalty points on her driving licence before the offence.
Emma did not attend the hearing. Her lawyer, Mark Haslam, told the court that she is a student, and is "in a position to pay the fine". Her representatives are yet to comment on the matter.
The 35-year-old British actor has been pursuing a master's degree in creative writing at the University of Oxford since 2023.
Interestingly, on the same day, Watson’s Harry Potter co-star Zoë Wanamaker, who played Quidditch teacher Madame Hooch, was also banned from driving for six months by the same court. She was also fined £1,044. Reportedly, the 76-year-old actor was caught driving on August 7, 2024, on the M4 in Newbury, Berkshire, at 46 miles her hour when the speed limit was 40 miles her hour.
Wanamaker also had nine points on her licence before the speeding incident happened.
Her lawyer Duncan Jones said that she was not asking for "special treatment" and accepted the penalty.
District Judge Arvind Sharma, deducted three more points on their licences, which means six-month suspension from driving.
Emma Watson rose to fame in 2001 with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, where she shared the screen space with Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint. She played young wizard Hermione Granger.
She reprised her role in eight Potter films in total, inlcuding Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), and others. She also starred in Beauty and the Beast, The Bling Ring and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Watson's last appearance was in the 2019 coming-of-age drama, Little Women, an adaptation of the novel by Louisa May Alcott.
