Which big name's vocation was annihilated on account of an undertaking?

 It wasn’t his affair beloved talkshow host Johnny Carson feared would destroy his career, but his son’s… about forty years ago, his son came to him, proud — he was going to be a grandfather! Carson was, reportedly, quite pleased. Then he found out the child’s mother was black. And he was a lot less pleased…

What would his viewers think? Would he lose some of his audience? Would anyone be bothered? He wasn’t sure. But sure enough, Mr. Carson himself seemed quite bothered by the whole thing.

Son Christopher Carson wanted to be a professional golfer but never quite made it. He lived off the elder Carson’s rather generous allowance. His famous host father told him to either stop seeing the woman and child, or face losing his allowance… so Chris stopped seeing his pregnant partner, stopped seeing the child, and refused to pay child support even after a DNA test proved his paternity.[1]

For years, granddaughter Crystal sent postcards to her famous grandfather for Christmas and for his birthday. He never responded, nor did his wife. When Carson died, she got no money. For years she lived in poverty, got bitten by rodents, her life rather bleak.

It’s sad because I don’t even think the situation would have realistically hurt Johnny Carson’s career in any meaningful way. While the aftermath does make him seem like a major dick for no apparant reason… in the end, as irony would have it, the granddaughter Johnny did not want anything to do with, would be his only grandchild. He died alone in 2005.