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.
To be completely honest, when she officially came out as a transphobe in 2020, I blocked all her social media, deleted Twitter, unfollowed fan pages, and then tried to pretend she no longer existed (mostly so that I could protect my beloved childhood memories - I was a major fan). To this day I still only engage with very small, safe HP communities online. So I don’t know everything that’s been going on. I have heard through the grapevine, though, some of things she’s done since then (like the mean tweets and donating only to trans-exclusionary charities) as well as some of the backlash. You’re right, it does sound very brutal what she’s gone through, and I do feel some sympathy for her. She once said that her greatest fear is her loved ones dying, so I have to imagine there is a lot of terror around those death threats if they are targeting her family members as well. I would be afraid to leave the house or let my kids go anywhere. It’s unacceptable for people to act like that. I don’t care how noble the cause.
Still, I wish one of her loved ones would take her damn phone away and tell her to get off Twitter.
I’ve not heard of anyone targeting her family, but I wouldn’t exactly be surprised. I think because of her recognisability the internet is probably her main source of new / fresh social contact now and so it’s a self-reinforcing problem.