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.
As someone who has done a lot of counseling, there is a somewhat common situation in which people’s actions can basically create a monster. Is actually a fairly common thing in superhero literature and lore - the reluctant evil enemy that was created by the collective had and abuse of society.
Im not familiar with the details of the Rowling/trans person kefuffle, but it sounds as if that syndrome could be a factor. She came out with an opinion that wasn’t popular with a certain segment, and many not that demographic went on the attack. Given Rowling’s influence and wealth, rather than disappear for a while as some mentioned, she leaned into it and responded in kind. Together, their respective actions and words simply continued to escalate until we have what we have today.
It’'s probbly not common knowledge here in Reddit (Reddit being what it is) but as someone who does counseling professionally (or did) ive observed there is a rising sentiment among some mental health professionals that feel we are going about understanding and reacting to the trans person movement in wrong and unhealthy ways. These are opinions based on medical and sociological data and not founded in political movement, religion or their own compassion or passion, just professional opinions. However, if expressed here, im sure there are those who would excoriated them. Mayne Rowling was following some if those dissenting opinions when she formed and expressed her own.