Is Dumbledore Gay? Albus' Relationship With Grindelwald Explained

Albus Dumbledore is at the front and center of the Fantastic Beasts movies along with Gellert Grindelwald, with whom he had a romantic relationship.

Harry Potter's Wizarding World is full of secrets, of which many have been revealed and confirmed by J.K. Rowling over the years, including Albus Dumbledore's sexual orientation – so, is Albus Dumbledore gay, and what is his relationship with Gellert Grindelwald? Back in 1997, Rowling introduced readers to the Wizarding World through her debut novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first entry in what would become a series of seven novels chronicling the story of “The Boy Who Lived” and Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard of all, who had dangerous plans for the Wizarding and Muggle worlds.

Even though the Harry Potter series came to an end in 2007 (and 2012 in the case of the movie saga), the Wizarding World has continued its expansion thanks to other works. Among those is the guide book Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, published in 2001 and written in-universe by Newt Scamander, a famous magizoologist. Years later, Fantastic Beasts was picked up for a series of prequel movies to the Harry Potter saga covering the events that led to the Global Wizarding War. Although Fantastic Beasts had Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) as the lead, the subsequent movies shifted their focus to Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp and Mads Mikkelsen), and these two have a lot of history together.

Throughout the Harry Potter saga, most of Dumbledore’s backstory was a mystery, and only a couple of details were revealed, but luckily for fans, Rowling has spent years sharing details about different characters, especially on the official Wizarding World website (formerly known as Pottermore). Of course, Dumbledore wasn’t left behind, and Rowling made the big reveal of him being gay and having had a romantic relationship with none other than Gellert Grindelwald. Here’s when and how Albus Dumbledore was confirmed to be gay and what his relationship with Grindelwald was like.

When Albus Dumbledore Was Confirmed To Be Gay

Given the secrecy over Dumbledore’s backstory in the Harry Potter saga and his close relationship with some male characters, fans of the books and movies started to speculate that the beloved Hogwarts Headmaster was gay. Those suspicions were confirmed in 2007 during a reading of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at Carnegie Hall, where Rowling was asked if Dumbledore ever fell in love, and she replied that she “always thought of Dumbledore as gay”, and even revealed he had been in love with Gellert Grindelwald. This romance added to the tragedy of Dumbledore as the person he was in love with turned out to be a dangerous man with horrible plans for wizards and muggles, and he was “terribly let down by him”. Rowling even shared that a line in the early script for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had Dumbledore saying he “knew a girl once”, and she had to add a note on the margin letting them know that Dumbledore is gay.

Why Dumbledore Wasn't Confirmed As Gay In Harry Potter Movies Or Books

The confirmation of Dumbledore being gay was divisive – while some praised that a big character in a children’s book series was gay, others questioned Rowling’s decision to confirm the suspicions of fans after the book series came to an end and once Dumbledore was dead, thus leaving no chance for the exploration of Dumbledore’s sexuality… unless there was a prequel series of some kind. When a young Albus Dumbledore was confirmed to appear in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, fans hoped to see that part of Dumbledore’s story on the big screen (thus actually making it canon), but that still hasn’t happened and it might never do.

Rowling gave fans some hope of Dumbledore’s sexuality being explored in the Fantastic Beasts series in 2016 by telling fans to “watch this space” but in 2018, director David Yates said Fantastic Beasts would “not explicitly” make it clear that Dumbledore is gay. In 2019, Rowling’s comments on the Fantastic Beasts 2 DVD/Blu-ray made headlines as she continued to insist on Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s relationship being real even though it hasn’t actually been represented in either books or movies, but made a lot of emphasis in their relationship being “incredibly intense” and a passionate love relationship, and that she was less interested in the sexual side of it. Rowling has since insisted that she’s trying to avoid getting “uncomfortably explicit” with Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s relationship, but that has translated into no representation at all.

Albus Dumbledore Was In Love With Gellert Grindelwald

Albus Dumbledore had a complicated life, as his youngest sister, Ariana Dumbledore, was attacked by a group of Muggles who saw her performing magic. This left Ariana mentally and emotionally scarred, deeply affecting her powers, which would manifest themselves on rare occasions in random or destructive ways. His father, Percival Dumbledore, was sent to Azkaban after avenging Ariana, and so Albus, his mother Kendra, his brother Aberforth, and Ariana moved to Godric’s Hollow. After graduating from Hogwarts, Kendra was killed by one of Ariana’s outbursts of uncontrollable magic, and so Albus became the head of the family. At this point, Albus felt bitter, resented, and trapped, until Gellert Grindelwald arrived. Grindelwald moved in with his great-aunt Bathilda Bagshot, a friend and neighbor of the Dumbledores, and Albus was excited to see that Grindelwald was as brilliant as him. Albus was fascinated by Grindelwald’s research of the Deathly Hallows and ideas of wizarding domination, and their friendship soon turned into a romantic relationship, in which Albus fell in love with Grindelwald.

Dumbledore's Love For Grindelwald Explains His Backstory

As mentioned before, Dumbledore’s backstory was a mystery throughout the Harry Potter books and movies, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows revealed his former alliance with Grindelwald. Harry learned that Dumbledore was once a wizarding supremacist and was about to start a revolution with Grindelwald, and when he met Aberforth, he also learned about the biggest tragedy in the Dumbledore family. Albus’ alliance with Grindelwald led him to neglect his duties as Ariana’s caretaker, and his mission would have dragged Aberforth and Ariana with him, so Aberforth confronted him. This made Albus realize what he had been doing and what he was getting involved in, which angered Grindelwald, leading him to use the Cruciatus Curse on Aberforth. A duel then erupted between Albus, Aberforth, and Grindelwald, in which Ariana was hit by a stray curse, killing her. Being a wizarding supremacist doesn’t fit at all with the Albus Dumbledore that readers, viewers, Harry, and many other characters in the history of the Wizarding World knew, but the reveal of him having been in love with Grindelwald explains that part of his backstory, and makes his whole story even more tragic.

Did Grindelwald Love Dumbledore Too?

To add yet another layer to the tragedy of Albus Dumbledore’s life, it’s likely his love wasn’t reciprocated. Gellert Grindelwald was a brilliant wizard who excelled in various fields of magic and, as a Durmstrang Institute student, he absorbed much of its Dark Magic-oriented culture. He was a natural-born Seer and had a vision of himself rising to dominance over the Wizarding World, which led to his research of the Deathly Hallows and his plans of domination. Grindelwald was obsessed with his plans and ideas, and he saw an ally in Dumbledore, but his mission of world domination always came first, and he was more in love with the idea of power and mastering death than with Dumbledore. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will show the final duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and while Rowling’s Harry Potter track record doesn’t exactly offer great hope, it’s to be seen if this movie will finally show the extent of their romantic relationship or if Dumbledore’s sexual orientation will continue to be something that is said and known but never ever represented on screen and paper.

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