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.
Interview with the vampire was published in 1975, The claiming of sleeping beauty was published in 1983, and she went back to the catholic church in the late 90s/early 00s and published Christ the Lord in 05.
Even if she continues to (rightly) collect a paycheck from the work she’s done, the switch to Christianity was a hard swerve. She condemned or straight up denied a lot of themes she had previously celebrated in her work, and refused to really have anything to do with her earlier work.
That being said, Anne Rice was always a complicated individual. She was always inconsistent with what she would accept for interpreting her work, depending on where she was at personally. I actually thought the lashing out at fans/hating fanfiction stuff predated her losing her husband and switching to Christianity, but the intensity certainly grew after that. Apparently she drew back from the church again in the 10s, which I didn’t realize. In any case, I hope she found peace before she passed.
I hope so too. I’ve theorized that she’s either mentally ill or neurodivergent but never got around to having it treated. Either way, I hope she got to relax in her final years.