I’ve seen people talk about actors and artists that had a terrible time.
My own would be Anne Rice. She wrote Interview with the Vampire after her young daughter died of Leukemia. Then her husband suddenly died of a brain hemorrhage. I suspect her Christian, anti-fanfic phase was a result of mental illness and manipulation from the publishers, although I don’t think she ever apologized.
There’s shades of the deep seated empathy in Ender’s Game itself. Iirc, there’s a line about how Ender really understands his enemy, to the point of loving them, and that is why he can destroy them.