On Tuesday, the author said she knew "very early on" in the writing process that Dumbledore was gay, but didn't feel the need to spell it out for readers.
The Dumbledore bombshell has stunned Potter fans around the world and left many wondering why Rowling waited until the conclusion of her seven-book series to reveal the sexuality of the Hogwarts headmaster.
Asked about the timing of her revelation, Rowling said: "I was asked a very direct question at Carnegie Hall."
The U.K.-based author, stylishly dressed in a brown dress and matching boots, grew impatient with reporters who pressed her on the issue, saying she didn't feel the need to be explicit about Dumbledore's sexual preferences because she wanted to focus on character development.
"If you were an author then you would understand that when you write the ending it comes at the end," she said.
Dumbledore, Rowling has now revealed, was once in love with the dark wizard Grindelwald, something that some canny Potter fans had long suspected.
"The plot is what it is," said Rowling. "(Dumbledore) did have, as I say, this rather tragic infatuation, but that was a key part of the ending of the story so there it is. Why would I put the key part of my ending of my story in Book 1?"
Rowling said Tuesday she found it "freeing" to out Dumbledore, adding that the passages about him will mean different things to different readers.
"I think a child will see a friendship and I think a sensitive adult may well understand that it was an infatuation," she said.
. I'd read that 
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), and she addressed the Dumbledore issue. Parts of the press conference can be found in this article: 
