During a recent Q&A session with audience members, Rowling answered a young fan who asked if (Headmaster) Dumbledore ever finds true love.

"Dumbledore is gay," she said, adding he was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, who he beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago.

The audience gasped, then applauded. "I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy," she said.

"Falling in love can blind us to an extent," she added, saying Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down" and his love for Grindelwald was his "great tragedy".

–J.K. Rowling, surprising "Harry Potter" fans by belatedly outing her elderly fictional character Headmaster Albus Dumbledore as same-sex oriented. [BBC via Queerty]