Aaron Donald secures temporary restraining order against alleged stalker
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gat damn
Aaron Donald was one of the NFL’s toughest players. A stalker left him living in fear
Though most stalking victims are women, the issue remains deeply problematic for all athletes.www.nytimes.com
Can you copy and paste the article please? Thanks
Stinky Diver
attitude as bad as his odor
Aaron Donald was one of the NFL’s toughest players. A stalker left him living in fear
Nathan FennoAug. 13, 2025
373
Retired Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald received a brief email in March from the Los Angeles-based head of people and culture for a healthcare technology startup. “Hi Hubby!” Janelle Anwar wrote. “Please save. Love you!” She attached a copy of her annual performance review, which was filled with glowing comments from the company’s chief executive officer.
What appeared to be a routine email from a significant other was part of something much darker. Donald is not Anwar’s husband. The two have never even met. For years, she has sent him increasingly unsettling emails, chats and voice memos in addition to repeated phone calls, according to court records. She tracked down his brother, sending him numerous emails, and attempted to have packages and balloons delivered to Donald’s children. She traveled to Pittsburgh for his football camp, where she claimed to have encountered his daughter.
Even though Donald is married, Anwar filed two baseless divorce petitions, seeking millions of dollars.
Two weeks before the emailed performance review, Anwar sent a series of Google Chat messages that Donald took as threats against his 3-year-old son: “So make sure you pay for (him) to live … Cause that’s what it will be … You will have to pay for his life now and everyone will get a cut …”
Donald wrote in a declaration filed with an application for a restraining order in April: “I am fearful for my safety and the safety of my wife and children, and the safety of my brother.”
Though most stalking victims are women, the issue remains deeply problematic for all athletes. Donald is a future Pro Football Hall of Famer and one of the most dominant defenders in NFL history, a 6-foot-1, 280-pound lineman known for his strength and toughness. In 10 seasons, he missed only nine regular-season games. But five years of intensifying harassment from Anwar left Donald exasperated, uncertain and afraid. His ordeal provides an unusually detailed look inside the pervasive and prolonged toll that can come from being targeted by a fixated stranger.
“One of the things that a lot of stalking survivors talk about, famous or otherwise, is the constant state of worry they had about what the person may or may not do, where they may or may not show up,” said Carlos Cuevas, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern University. “The unpredictability is a big concern and … the content of what they’re saying. Some of it might be just more uncomfortable and some of it can be straight-up scary.”
During his playing days and into retirement, Donald has been active on social media, posting about vacations, birthday celebrations, playing basketball with his wife. While experts say social media can lead fixated strangers to believe they’re connected to celebrities in a way they’re not, it’s unclear what role it played for Anwar. In a court filing, she said she had a “virtual connection” with Donald, and acknowledged following him on social media since 2023.
Donald wrote in a court filing that threatening and harassing emails and calls from Anwar began in 2020. He blocked the addresses and phone numbers, but the messages continued, as Anwar used at least nine email addresses.
Experts say public figure stalkers have often experienced some kind of significant setback like the death of a loved one or loss of a job to go along with a psychiatric disorder. They can fixate on a public figure through something as innocuous as the person signing an autograph or wearing a certain outfit to which a would-be stalker attaches a specific, personal meaning.
“The underlying mental health issues or personality issues have to be there already. Well-adjusted people don’t do this, obviously,” retired FBI profiler Eugene Rugala said of strangers stalking public figures. “They can have a true belief that they’re in some kind of relationship and they want to walk into the sunset with the individual. That, to me, is the ultimate endgame.”
Anwar joined a digital health company as vice president of people operations in 2021. The 48-year-old’s biography touted her “professional brand values of accountability, communication, engagement, and process …” She joined her most recent company, a healthcare technology startup, in November 2023. Former colleagues didn’t recall her mentioning Donald in workplace conversations.
That fall, Anwar wrote in a court filing, she attended several football games. Her pursuit of Donald expanded, too.
A delivery from a local florist for Donald’s daughter arrived at the family’s former home the day before the Rams played the Seattle Seahawks in November 2023. Nine blue, gold and pink balloons, three confetti balloons and a large mylar dolphin. The invoice instructed the driver to “Ask for Aaron Donald at gate.” The same day, a stack of Amazon packages for the daughter and one of Donald’s sons were delivered. More packages for the daughter and son appeared a week later.
All of it came from Anwar.
A month later, Anwar smiled and clasped her hands in her lap as she sat in the front row of her company’s staff picture. She looked like just another employee.
Two weeks before Donald announced his retirement from the Rams in March 2024, another package from Anwar arrived at his former home. The following month, he received $5 from her on Zelle with a brief message: “I love you.”
A series of unusual posts appeared a few weeks later on a Twitter account with the same “Red Barry” pseudonym Anwar used in several court filings and emails. The phrasing, details and themes in posts mirrored her messages.
“I love Aaron Donald.”
“I accidentally married Aaron Donald.”
“Aaron and I married confidentially in May of 2024.”
Posts from the account, which has been deleted, mentioned the Los Angeles County community where Donald and his family moved in 2022, made baseless allegations about crimes involving celebrities, accused a high-profile figure of paying $1 million for a copy of her marriage certificate and claimed the author was “telepathic and psychic.”
One study found that 52 percent of celebrity stalkers it examined wanted a relationship — affectional or sexual — with the victim. Significant mental disorders were a problem for a majority of the subjects, too.
“They will start talking about their relationship with the person and, on the surface, you think, ‘Well, they obviously do know this person,’” said J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist who consults on public figure stalking cases and works with law enforcement. “And then it typically gets more and more bizarre and you realize … you are now within their delusion and they’re communicating to you this psychotic belief.”
While court documents don’t offer an underlying motivation for Anwar’s alleged behavior, they show increasingly direct approaches to Donald. In June 2024, Anwar traveled to Pittsburgh for his youth football camp, according to a court filing. She wrote that she watched him in front of the stadium “where he briskly passed by her to acknowledge her presence with a smile and non-verbal greeting …” and she crossed paths with his daughter at a snack bar.
The “Red Barry” Twitter posts about being married to Donald continued — “you are well aware I am Aaron’s legal wife” — among mentions of Donald’s real wife, witchcraft and a reality television star.
Then Anwar filed for divorce.
In a November petition in L.A. County Superior Court, she claimed to have married Donald on May 25, 2024 — in reality, he was celebrating his birthday with his wife and family in Pittsburgh that day — and they now had “irreconcilable differences.” She wanted a lump-sum payment of $3.8 million within 60 days of the divorce being finalized. Her handwritten name appeared five times in the document: “Janelle Anwar aka Red Barry.”
Up to this point, Anwar hadn’t been accused of violence. But the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department cited her for misdemeanor battery on Jan. 17. The department refused to provide details about what happened and denied two public records requests. Anwar didn’t respond to questions from The Athletic about the incident.
A month and a half later, the messages peppering Donald grew more frequent and worrisome. They included Anwar’s pledge on Google Chat that he would have to pay for the life of his young son.
Experts say that victims, regardless of stature, can be reluctant to go to law enforcement for a variety of reasons, including fear that it might escalate the stalker’s behavior. A report to Congress by the attorney general in 2022 found that less than a third of stalking victims involved authorities.
“Stalking is challenging to police effectively as it is a pattern-based, rather than an incident-based crime,” the report said. “Responding to stalking cases often necessitates specialized knowledge and is a significant investigative effort.”
Three days after the alarming messages about Donald’s young son, Anwar filed another divorce petition against the former player. She again used the “Red Barry” pseudonym and sought $6.5 million. The petition was mailed to the NFL — care of Commissioner Roger Goodell — in a certified letter without a return address.
Donald received another flurry of Google Chat messages from Anwar the same day: “You’re done … FBI report coming … I will start reporting all of your bodies … And I will use my real name … And I will state I am your wife currently … Today is my day bytch.”
He was copied on an email Anwar sent to a disc jockey on March 18. The disc jockey had no connection to either of them. Donald’s current address was in the subject line. She knew where he lived.
Six hours later, Donald got the email with Anwar’s annual performance review.
Donald received another email from Anwar the same night. His L.A.-based attorney called her the next day.
“Ms. Anwar informed me that she had known my client for some time and had gotten married to Petitioner online,” Peter Lauzon wrote in a declaration. “Ms. Anwar spoke in a very erratic and confused manner and claimed that Petitioner’s current wife and Petitioner were not married. Ms. Anwar further stated that Petitioner’s children have gone missing and that Petitioner should ‘be careful’ and ‘to watch out.’”
The following evening, Anwar attempted to send a DoorDash delivery to Donald’s current home, but security at the gated community refused it.
Donald’s application for a restraining order in April didn’t appear to give Anwar pause. Her responsive declaration filed a few days later sought to subpoena 50 NFL players — the suggested queries included whether they knew of her as a “Spiritual Guru” — in addition to DNA testing for the Donald children. She wanted a handwriting expert to examine Donald’s signature on the application. She suggested Rams players broke into her southwest L.A. home as a prank and left a sock belonging to coach Sean McVay — she wanted it tested for DNA, too.
A judge granted a five-year restraining order against Anwar in May. She didn’t attend the hearing. But two days later, she emailed Donald’s legal team. The email claimed that “the marriage/divorce is not a sham,” mentioned a psychic reading she purportedly conducted and positioned herself as a victim. She wrote that she was “perfectly OK with the restraining order …”
The order requires her to stay 100 yards from Donald, his wife, his four children and brother, as well as their homes, schools, vehicles and workplaces. It also prohibits her from contacting them directly or indirectly.
Cuevas laments how much of the burden of protection falls on stalking victims. They have to get a restraining order. They have to make it permanent. They have to hope the stalker respects it — or, if the order is violated, that it will provide grounds for law enforcement to get involved and arrest the perpetrator.
“That’s a lot to go through as a victim just to have some sense of protection and safety,” he said.
Donald and his attorney didn’t respond to requests for comment. But Donald’s words linger from the restraining order declaration: “(Anwar) is delusional and I fear that (Anwar’s) delusions will lead to her attempting to harm me, my wife, my children, and my brother” and “My wife … has also expressed fear for the safety of our entire family due to (Anwar’s) actions.”
Anwar, who has not been criminally charged in connection with the case, pleaded no contest to the battery charge in Las Vegas. The conditions include eight hours of impulse control counseling.
According to her LinkedIn page, her employment at the healthcare startup ended in July.
Anwar mentioned Donald several times in emails to The Athletic in June and July: “Seems like I have a problem with men bragging about being married to me and or some sort of intimate/personal relationship …” She listed several men, including McVay and Donald. She wrote that she “decided to take action” with Donald and the ensuing situation is “quite amusing to me, hilarious to be frank …”
The correspondence included bizarre claims about celebrities such as Dave East, Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner. She wrote: “You can tell people I am delusional. I don’t care. … I won’t win the media battle, not elite enough.”
On Saturday, Anwar cc’d The Athletic on an email sent to Donald’s attorney claiming that an anonymous source informed her that Donald and a former teammate had recently entered her backyard and that her “instinct is to appeal the restraining order.”
These stalkers faces need to be blasted on billboards across the cities
These restraining orders isn’t shyt
These restraining orders isn’t shyt
Yeah they don’t really work
IsThatBrothaMouzone?
Veteran
I couldn't imagine voluntarily stalking this dude.
There's got to be more to the story. Of all the NFL players.......
There's got to be more to the story. Of all the NFL players.......
