The time Harry Potter star Rupert Grint was revealed to be 48

September 2004. Rupert Grint had it all, the third of the popular Harry Potter films had been released to great acclaim, and he was one of the hottest stars on the planet.

But tomorrow, that was to all come crashing down.

Alone in the tastefully decorated living room of his house, he hung up the phone, sighed, and poured himself a glass of single malt whisky.

His secret shame was to be revealed in the Sunday newspapers the next morning.

That the teenage acting sensation Rupert Grint was actually a 48 year old man.

“My world was about to crash in on me yet, oddly, I was quite calm,” recalled Rupert in his 2010 autobiography ‘I remember the moon landings.’

“I drank my whisky, kissed the kids and went to sleep next to my wife of 20 years.”

The next day all hell broke loose.

“The media found out where I lived and were hammering on the door, taking photos through the window, and ruining the lovely petunias I’d put down in spring.”

Accepting his fate, Rupert battled through the thronging reporters and made his way to the studio where he would resign with as much dignity as he could still muster.

But he hadn’t banked on the Harry Potter family.

“You know,” he recalled

“It’s at times like that, when you’re at your very lowest low that magic happens.”

He pulled his Lexus into the car park to find Emma Watson and Dan Radcliffe waiting for him.

“I thought they were going to go crazy. We’d been best friends for the last four or five years and yet I’d never told them I was 48.”

“But Dan just went ‘you nob’ and the pair of them gave me a big hug.”

The three of them went together to see producer David Heyman.

“David was great, he just said ‘well, we’re going to have to improve your contract now,’ gave me a whisky and chuckled ’48’ to himself.”

As Rupert left he found that Harry Potter fans had gathered with placards reading ‘even if he’s 48, we still think that Ron is great.’

“It was going to be the worst day of my life, the day where I lost my job, my friends, everything, but as it turned out, it was the best.

“People can be wonderful.”

Nowadays, Rupert is a sprightly 61-year-old, still young looking for his age, he works when he chooses and looks back fondly at the time he was 48, and the oldest boy wizard at Hogwarts.