Reportedly pained by the turn of events, JK Rowling nevertheless severs ties with long-time champion, literary agent Christopher Little (JK Rowling photo from Daily Mail website; Christopher Little photo from The Independent website)

HOLLYWOOD -- In what seemed like a curt move that left a 71-year-old man “distraught” and feeling “betrayed,” superstar multi-millionaire author J.K. Rowling dumped her literary agent, Christopher Little, after a partnership of 16 years. Unfortunately for Little, it also happened not only at a time when Rowling is about to take her lucrative franchise to new heights—embracing the Internet, no less—but when his health has been failing.

In a web report by UK’s Daily Mail, published on July 10, the dismissal did not come from Rowling herself. The letter issued to Little had come from his own business partner and company lawyer, Neil Blair. Apparently, along with being told that his services were no longer required, it reportedly stated that Blair was starting his own literary agency, with no less than Rowling as its star client.

“It was like ripping the heart out of Chris,” Daily Mail quoted a source—a friend of Little’s—who also described the development to be a “double betrayal” for the man who had stood fiercely and loyally by Rowling for years.

The move, which was also reportedly announced in the industry journal, “The Bookseller,” stunned the literary community. The partnership between Rowling and Little, in fact, has always been regarded as one of the strongest in the business.

Many also credit Little as the one who spotted her potential when she was a penniless 29-year-old single mother struggling to make ends meet and striving to become a published author. Daily Mail’s report even noted that Rowling’s early manuscript for her now extremely profitable novels (and an even more profitable brand) ended up in the reject basket until someone rescued it and handed it to Little.

The story then was that Little believed in her work so much that many had come to know him as the true mastermind of Rowling’s career. The Daily Mail article, in fact, noted Little went to work “ruthlessly building up an organization to defend, promote and advance his author’s rights” and took Rowling to a road to fame and fortune.

In fact, Barry Cunningham, who was then the agent at Bloomsburry Publishing that bought the first Potter book, said that he read Rowling’s book as a favor to Little even after “she was turned down by everybody…” He likewise described Little as “critical to [Rowling’s] success.”

To further shed light on why Little would be feeling betrayed, Blair was said to be the former head of Business Affairs for Warner Bros. Europe—at the time when the company made the first “Harry Potter” film—when Little recruited him to his company in 2001 reportedly to “handle the growing caseload of legal complications that have arisen around Rowling’s books and films,” the Daily Mail also noted.

Little’s dismissal follows reports that Rowling would be launching Pottermore before the year ends, just as the books have been exhausted for film adaptation. Pottermore is a website that would contain previously unpublished Harry Potter material—from character backgrounds to interactive features—and is said to be masterminded by Blair.

Industry watchers also speculated that the Rowling-Little split had been the result of a disagreement over money. While it may be likely, what this partnership has amassed all these years is simply astounding and to throw that away is unbelievable to many.

Whereas the Daily Mail reported that Little only sold Rowling’s first ever manuscript 16 years ago for just £2,500, the agent eventually earned a reputation as a brilliant deal maker after he got his client amazing returns from international rights. He is also generally credited as not just the man who guided her career but had carved her a £500 million fortune. Thus, the paper described the dismissal as something that “appears somewhat graceless.”

But as the report also pointed out, Little himself had amassed a fortune of his own, although significantly smaller than Rowling’s. “He earned 15 percent of Rowling’s gross earnings for the UK market and 20 percent for merchandising rights for film, for the US market and for translation deals,” it said. The Daily Mail even noted that his estimated fortune is at £50 million.

On the flipside of all this, the report nevertheless noted that according to a former associate, Little wasn’t always the easiest to deal with. Apparently, his relationship with Rowling had also been strained at times. The Daily Mail also said a source close to the author revealed that the split was not as sudden as it seemed; the fallout had supposedly been brewing for “about four years.”

Rowling, it had been reported too, could not have made the decision easily and the source suspected the author “really tried to make things work,” the Daily Mail quoted. In addition, the source also said Rowling was simply thinking of what’s the best way “to protect her legacy;” and more than “book deals and film rights,” what she needed was “strong legal representation,” noting also that Blair was “a very good lawyer.”

For many of Little’s friends, however, there’s fear that the affable and charismatic Yorkshireman—despite having a “core of steel”—may never recover from this major letdown.

In a report by UK’s The Independent, as published online, Little is supposedly considering legal action against Rowling. And now that she’s defected to The Blair Partnership, it is speculated that Rowling would be taking a greater control of her interests since Blair isn’t a “conventional literary agent” but a lawyer.