The New York Times, August 2025
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.”
