STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Joke Origin

Is it public knowledge that author J.K. Rowling has cancer? No, that's not true: There have been no official announcements or evidence-based reporting that Rowling has cancer. The viral rumor on social media appears to have started with a sarcastic joke made at the author's expense.

An example of the baseless claim about Rowling's health can be seen in a post on X (archived here) by @tzuyusvi published on Sept. 10, 2025. It simply says:

JK ROWLING HAS CANCER

This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:

(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot of x.com/tzuyusvi/status/1965896877087535531.)

The day before this was posted, on Sept. 9, 2025, @meowkoteeq published a post on X (archived here) which included a photo of Rowling. The text of the post is clearly a sarcastic joke. It reads:

J. K. Rowling was found to have cancer. Doctors believe that with a successful surgery, the malignant tumor can be removed, and the cancer will be saved.

J. K. Rowling was found to have cancer. Doctors believe that with a successful surgery, the malignant tumor can be removed, and the cancer will be saved. pic.twitter.com/8L89Ag5D4B

-- anna (@meowkoteeq) September 9, 2025

Another connection pointing to this tweet as the source of the rumor, @meowkoteeq posted a screenshot on X (archived here) on Sep 11, 2025, showing Google trends results for the search terms "rowling cancer" which showed a large spike that began on Sept. 10, 2025. The post was captioned:

oh man

(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot of x.com/meowkoteeq/status/1966089653536067661.)

Lead Stories reached out to J.K. Rowling's PR Team and received this reply on Sept. 15, 2025:

J. K. Rowling has not been diagnosed with cancer and any reports stating this are untrue and inaccurate. We won't be commenting further.