Celebrities Dealing With Stalkers

Fans and celebrities go back a long way though here are some of the weird, funny but creepy stalker encounters from Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Keira Knightley to Robert Pattinson.

Being rich and famous may come with plenty of perks, but there’s always a dark side to it all. While the life of an A-lister does include lavish vacations in exotic locales and walking the red carpet at star-studded events, many celebs also have to deal with disturbingly determined super “fans” who may be threatening not only their own safety but, oftentimes, the safety of their families

1. Taylor Swift’s stalker drove from Colorado to her home in Beverly Hills with a knife.

Taylor has had a number of stalkers attempt to break into her various homes over the span of her career. Earlier this year, two men were arrested for separate attempts at breaking into her New York City apartment. One was sentenced to 30 months in prison for not only stalking, but threatening to kill Taylor. In 2018, 38-year-old Julius Sandrock drove from Colorado to Taylor’s home in Beverly Hills. He was masked and had a knife with him. Taylor later filed a restraining order against him.

Mohammed Jaffar was also arrested in 2018 and sentenced to six months in jail after repeatedly attempting to break into Taylor’s NYC home in 2017.

In a 2019 interview with Elle, she said she carries army-grade bandages for gunshot or stab wounds. “You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house, and you kind of start prepping for bad things.”

2. Keira Knightley’s stalker stood outside her door whispering “meow.”

Keira had a series of horrifying incidents with 50-year-old stalker Mark Revill, who at one point meow-ed at her through the letterbox of her London home. He would frequently visit her house and use chalk to draw arrows pointing to her door. At one point he left a USB at her house with cat-themed music that included a note saying, “Listen to my music.” In 2016, Keira said: “Since I reported the incident to the police after he meowed through my letterbox and had a scuffle with my husband on my doorstep, we are now looking to move house outside the borough.”

3. Justin Bieber’s stalker hired two men to castrate and murder him.

People have been known to crowd outside of Justin’s Beverly Hills home in the hopes of snagging a photo or hug from the singer. In 2020, he took to Instagram to air out his frustrations, writing, “How can you convince yourself it’s not completely inappropriate and disrespectful to wait outside my home to gawk, stare and take pictures as I walk into my apartment. This is not a hotel. It’s my home.”

Back in 2013, Justin experienced a truly terrifying encounter with a then-41-year-old stalker who wanted to castrate and murder him. Mark Staake and his nephew, Tanner Ruane (23), were caught in New York City while planning to castrate Justin with garden spears and then murder him. They were apparently operating on orders from 45-year-old Dana Martin, who said his reasoning for wanting to castrate and kill Justin wasn’t “just so people will know who I am. It’s because he changed, and that made me angry.”

4. Lily Allen’s stalker claimed he wrote one of her songs.

For seven years, Lily dealt with a stalker who claimed he was the writer of her song “The Fear,” and then proceeded to harass and threaten her. “He would drop off these letters at my record company, my management offices, my sister’s shop, my flat,” she told the Guardian in 2016. Then, one night a stranger broke into her home, who Lily believes was Alex Gray, the same man who had been stalking her. “I sat up and looked and the door handle was twisting round. This guy came steaming in and I didn’t know who he was. I recoiled and he ripped the duvet off, calling me a ‘fucking bitch’ and yelling about where his dad is.” Lily was sure it was the same man because she said it was “too much of a coincidence” that he broke into her home the one day she left her shutters up. Alex Gray was eventually charged with burglary and detained in a mental health facility.

5. Kendall Jenner’s stalker attacked her in her driveway.

Back in 2017, Kendall opened up about her experience with a stalker sneaking into her gate and banging on her car window while she was inside the car. “I turned my car off and I’m about to open my door and he’s standing right there. He goes, ‘I need to talk to you,’ and I was like, ‘No, you need to leave.’ I called one of my friends sobbing, crying — he’s at my window, banging at my window, screaming at me.”  

6. Robert Pattinson had a date with his stalker.

Unlike almost every other celebrity on this list (or anyone ever), Robert decided to not only interact with his stalker, but went on a date with her. While filming a movie in Spain, he said there was a woman that would stand outside his apartment “every day” for weeks. “I was so bored and lonely that I went out and had dinner with her,” he told GQ in 2019. “I just complained about everything in my life and she never came back.”

7. Sarah McLachlan’s stalker filed a lawsuit against her.

In 1991, Sarah began receiving love letters from Uwe Vandrei, a fan, that she said were “creepy.” She based her hit song “Possession” about the experience, which then prompted Uwe to take legal action against her, filing a lawsuit claiming she stole the lyrics from his letters. Uwe was later found dead after he killed himself. Sarah said many of her fans have “walked down the aisle” to “Posession.” “If only they knew it was about a stalker!”

8. Tana Mongeau said her stalker took pictures of her sleeping.

Tana has been quite open with her fans and the press about her fear surrounding a stalker she’s claimed to have had for 10-plus years. “It’s one of those things where I think he’s a really smart person and he could do it and get away from it if he really wanted to,” she said in 2017 to her YouTube audience. Tana said she kept feeling like someone was watching her, and at one point found photos on her Polaroid camera of her sleeping.

9. Willow Smith’s stalker camped outside of her home.

Willow opened up just this year about her experience with a stalker. In December 2020, a stalker broke into Willow’s Los Angeles home while she was on vacation with her family. She later found a tent set up outside, where it is assumed he was waiting and monitoring her “patterns.” “He basically got my patterns,” she said. “He was a pedophile. I had to go to court and testify about it.” Willow now has a restraining order against him.

10. Lindsay Lohan’s stalker believed they were married.

In 2011, Lindsay tweeted a photo of the man she believed to be stalking and threatening her. “This is the freemason stalker that has been threatening to kill me — while he is TRESPASSING,” she said in now deleted tweets. “I’m actually scared now — the blood in the ‘cults’ book was too much.” Sources at the time confirmed Lindsay was being stalked by someone, but her security team was reluctant to release more information. However, in 2014, 37-year-old Daniel Vorderwulbecke was arrested for continuously harassing Lindsay and her team in London, where she was rehearsing for a play. He called himself “King Lionheart” and believed he and Lindsay had communicated every day through social media, and that they were married.

11. Sandra Bullock’s stalker broke into her home, and she hid in the closet.

In 2014, Sandra was home alone at her house in Bel Air when someone broke in. She ran to the closet and frantically dialed 911. “It was the one night that Louis wasn’t with me,” she said, referring to her son, who was 4 at the time. “It was the one night that our nanny goes, ‘Let me just take him to my apartment which is up the street because you’re going to be out late.’” The then-39-year-old Joshua Corbett had been stalking Sandra for days before breaking into her home. In 2018, Corbett died from suicide after a stand-off with police at his Los Angeles home.

12. Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez once had to deal with a stalking situation that was so disturbing that it may have even factored into her decision to sell a multi-million-dollar mansion.

Within days of moving into a 7,200-square foot home in Calabasas, California in 2014, a man who was later identified as 20-year-old Che Cruz was arrested for trespassing onto Gomez’s property twice in one week. On the first occasion, Che broke into Gomez’s guest house after first ringing the doorbell and asking the singer’s friend if Gomez was home, according to the outlet. He seemed to leave then, but he was later found in the guest house.

A judge placed Cruz on probation, ordered him to keep his distance from Gomez and her property, and sentenced him to 45 days in jail. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office confirmed that Cruz spent two days behind bars before he was released, and he was arrested again hours later, after allegedly hopping a fence to get back onto Gomez’s property, according to the outlet.

Cruz, described as homeless by Billboard, pleaded no contest to stalking charges in June of that year, and a judge ordered him to stay away from Gomez and her house for a full 10 years, in addition to completing six months in a residential treatment facility and then undergoing psychological treatment for a year.

Gomez, after installing a gate around her property and reportedly phoning 911 numerous times in the months that followed Cruz’s break-in, put the house up for sale the following year.

13. Gwyneth Paltrow

A man previously convicted of stalking actress Gwyneth Paltrow is alleged to have done so for nearly 20 years.

Dante Michael Soiu was accused in 2016 of sending Paltrow 66 letters and packages between the year 2009 and 2015. Prosecutors claimed that some of the packages contained pornography, and that Soiu talked about marrying her in some of the letters, according to the outlet.

Soiu was previously found not guilty in 2000 as part of a separate case involving claims that he’d sent Paltrow pornography and sex toys; he attributed his behavior to insanity, and a judge sentenced him to undergo treatment at a mental health facility, but he was arrested again in 2015 when he began sending Paltrow letters again

14. Beyonce

Beyonce is no stranger to having to deal with conspiracy theories (Illuminati rumors, anyone?), but one crazed fan took bizarre speculation to a whole new level a few years ago.

The “Formation” singer was scheduled to perform in London for the Sound of Change concert in 2013, but apparently had to make sure that she and all her staff kept an eye out for a fan who believed that she was secretly an imposter. Beyonce had previously had an unpleasant brush with the British fan, a man named Bassey Essein, in 2009 when he allegedly tried to give her a personalized book full of notes on religion because he believed it would “help” her, the outlet reports.

He is alleged to have later sent Beyonce threatening letters that accused her of being an imposter who killed the real Beyonce, court documents obtained by The Independent state, leading the court to slap Essein with an anti-harassment order.