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.
Salman Rushdie. British-Indian writer. Won the Booker prize for Midnight’s Children. Was condemned by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini for blasphemy for his next book The Satanic Verses. Sentenced to death. Spent decades living in hiding. Finally coming out of his seclusion in NYC.
Several translators were murdered by Islamic radicals. In 2022 Rushdie himself was attacked on stage and stabbed repeatedly. Lost an eye and use of one hand.
He’s a master class writer of magical realism and definitely one of my favorites.