Tom Felton: what actor said about Emma Watson in new book Beyond the Wand - does he have a girlfriend?

Harry Potter star Tom Felton, known for playing the blonde haired Draco Malfoy, has opened up about his relationship with Herimone Granger actress Emma Watson in his new memoir, Beyond the Wand, which has been released today (13 October).

Felton and Watson’s relationship has been the subject of much speculation, with fans around the world convinced that, at some point or another, the two must have dated. While the two have repeatedly denied any romantic goings on, Felton revealed that he has “always had a secret love for Emma”.

This is everything you need to know.

What did Tom Felton say about Emma Watson in new book?

In his new book, Beyond the Wand, Felton wrote that Watson was a “kindred spirit”, and that the two forged a bond on the set of the wizarding movies, adding: “I loved and admired her as a person in a way I could never explain to anybody else.”

Felton also wrote about a “secret love” that he’s “always” had for Watson, who has spoken in the past about having a crush on the Draco actor.

He wrote: “I’ve always had a secret love for Emma, though not perhaps in the way that people might want to hear. That isn’t to say there’s never been a spark between us. There most definitely has, only at different times.”

He explained that he was first told that Watson had a crush on him when she was 12. He was 15 at the time, and had a girlfriend.

Felton wrote: “Rumours started to abound that there was more to our relationship than we were letting on. I denied I liked her in that way, but the truth was different. My girlfriend at the time knew straight away that there was something unspoken between us.

“I remember using the familiar old line, “I love her like a sister”. But there was more to it than that. I don’t think I was ever in love with Emma, but I loved and admired her as a person in a way that I could never explain to anybody else… we were kindred spirits.

“I know for certain I’ll always have Emma’s back and she’ll always have mine too.”

Does he have a girlfriend?

It’s unclear whether or not the actor currently has a girlfriend. His last public relationship was with Jade Olivia Gordon, whom he was with from April 2008 until early 2016. Gordon actually appeared as Draco’s wife in the end sequence of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which showed the Hogwarts gang all grown up.

What has Emma Watson said about crush on Tom Felton?

Back in 2011, Watson told Seventeen magazine that, for the first two Harry Potter movies, she had “a huge crush” on Felton.

She said: “He was my first crush. He totally knows. We talked about it - we still laugh about it. We are really good friends now, and that’s cool.”

More recently, during the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts reunion, Watson described the moment that she “fell in love” with Felton.

She said: “I walked into the room where we were having tutoring. The assignment that had been given was to draw what you thought God looked like, and Tom had drawn a girl with a backward cap on a skateboard. And I don’t know how to say it - I just fell in love with him.

“I used to come in every day and look for his number on the call sheet, it was number seven, and if his name was on the call sheet, it was an extra exciting day. He was three years above me and so for him he was like, “You’re like my little sister”.”

Felton said: “I think I was in the hair and make-up chair and someone said something along the lines of, “Yeah, she had a crush on you”. I became very protective over her. Yeah, I’ve always had a soft spot for her and that continues to this day. There’s always been something that’s like, I don’t know, a kinship.”

Currently, Watson is rumoured to be in a relationship with Brandon Green after the pair were spotted walking hand in hand through Venice in August. Green is the son of British businessman Sir Philip Green, who was the chairman of retail company Arcadia Group which owned high street fashion retailers like Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge.