Emma Watson Breaks Silence On Her 6-Month Driving Ban: ‘My Shame Is Everywhere’

Emma Watson opened up about her six-month driving ban for the first time. The actress, who landed her iconic role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter franchise at the age of 9, recalled the incident

which became transformative for her. She even revealed how this unexpectedly garnered immense public attention.

Emma Watson addressed her six-month driving ban, revealing that she has already started riding a two-wheeler. She further highlighted how the news had become mainstream overnight, leaving her consumed by shame. “I recently started riding a bicycle, and yes, I started riding a bicycle before my driving ban, but now it’s particularly fortuitous that I also ride a bicycle, for that reason, but that was mainstream news,” she said on Jay Shetty’s podcast.

Emma Watson Was Consumed By Shame After The Driving Ban

She continued, “Oh my God, I was getting phone calls like it’s on the BBC. It’s on international worldwide news. I was like, my shame is everywhere,” adding, “This is. I mean, what I say, I don’t know. I think in a funny way, what the sweetest result of it was getting so many messages from people being like happened to me too. It sucks, which was kind of nice in a way.”

Emma Watson On Actors Aren’t Allowed To Drive On Their Own

The British actor further explained how this had a striking relation to her acting career and a sense of responsibility associated with it. “When you have worked on movies — I don’t know if people know this — they literally will not insure you to drive yourself to work. I’ve asked so many times. You have to be driven. It’s not a choice. Especially because they need you there down to the minute, basically, depending on what they have going on,” the 35-year-old added, citing the real reasons behind the incident.

She stated, “So I went from basically only driving myself on weekends or during holidays to when I became a student, driving myself all the time. I did not have the experience or skills, clearly, which I now will and do.”

Emma Watson Reveals The Drastic Transition In Her Life

On the podcast, Watson claimed that the driving incident is a pure example of “one of these, like, awkward transitions” which she made from “living this very, very structured life to living a life where I was like, ‘Okay, I guess I’m going to get myself to this place and I’m going to do this thing that I’ve basically not done since I was 10 years old.”

The transition in Emma’s life has been a “discovery and a journey” for her, which helped in “humbling her”.

Drawing a sparkling comparison, she shared, “Because on a movie set, I’m able to do all of these like extremely complex things, stunts, sing, dance … and then I get home and I’m like, ‘Emma, you seem unable to remember keys, wallet, keep yourself at 30 miles an hour in a 30-mile speed limit. You don’t seem able to do some basic life things.’ … It’s been humbling.”

After a speeding incident in 2024, where she was caught driving at 38 mph in a 30 mph zone, Watson was ordered a six-month driving ban on July 16 in the UK. The star was just a few points away from having her driver’s license suspended, according to a report by BBC News.