'Harry Potter' star denies bullying reports

4/30/2011

Harry Potter star Emma Watson is denying media reports that she was bullied out of Brown University.

In a statement posted on her Web site on Friday, Watson says taking a semester off from the Providence, R.I., university this spring had “nothing to do with bullying.” She says she was never bullied at Brown or anywhere else.

Watson plays Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series. She says she’s not sure what her plans are for the fall semester, her third year. She says that, like many of her fellow Brown students, she is considering studying abroad.

A Watson spokesman said last week it’s “possible and likely” she’ll spend her senior year at Brown.

Media reports this month cited an anonymous Brown “insider” that Watson was “bullied out” of the school.