'Harry Potter' star Tom Felton, who portrayed the role of 'Draco Malfoy' in the franchise, revealed that he 'secretly had romantic feelings' for his co-star Emma Watson.
According to Fox News, the 35-year-old actor admitted that there was "a spark" between him and the 32-year-old actress in his new memoir, "Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard" by The Evening Standard. "I loved and admired her as a person in a way I could never explain to anybody else," he stated in a report by Fox News.
As per the reports of Fox News, he recalled meeting Watson for the first time at an audition when he was 11 and she was 9. Felton wrote that Watson pointed at a boom microphone and asked him, "What's that?" to which he responded, "It means they are recording us, obviously."
"My relationship with Emma did not start well," Felton admitted. "She'd have been forgiven for not wanting much to do with me. It got worse."
Felton wrote that after they were cast, he mostly avoided Watson and spent his lunch breaks smoking cigarettes and listening to rap music with other actors.
'The Flash' star recalled an incident in which he and other cast members mocked Watson during a lunchtime dance routine.
He went on to say that his colleagues were "predictably dismissive." They snickered on their way down to her show, Felton added, and it only got louder during her dance.
As per the reports of Fox News, Felton and Watson eventually became close friends and the pair have been the subject of romance rumours for years. In his memoir, Felton explained that the speculation wasn't entirely baseless.
"I've always had a secret love for Emma, though not perhaps in the way that people might want to hear," Felton said.
"That isn't to say that there's never been a spark between us. There most definitely has, only at different times."
Felton stated that he first discovered Watson had a crush on him when he was 15 and she was 12. Felton insisted that his feelings for Watson were purely platonic, but his girlfriend suspected otherwise at the time.
"Rumours started to abound that there was more to our relationship than we were letting on. I denied that I liked her in that way, but the truth was different."
He continued, "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."
Upon reflection, Felton said he doesn't think he 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."
Felton revealed in his new book that their relationship had a rocky start when they met as child actors.
In the mega-hit franchise, Watson played the heroine Hermione Granger, while Felton played her nemesis Draco Malfoy. From 2001 to 2011, the two co-starred in all eight films in the series.
(ANI)
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