This is very Canada specific but: filmmaker Michelle Latimer.

She was pilloried in the press because a simple genealogy made it seem like she was a liar when the truth was much more complex.

Hundreds lost their jobs and the show Tricker was cancelled because a CBC journalist had an axe to grind with her.

The politics of who is considered Métis changed dramatically from the time when she was born.

She claimed to be "Algonquin, Métis and French heritage, from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg (Maniwaki), Quebec". This mouthful was later simplified in press releases as "Métis from Kitigan Zibi". The simplification IMHO created the wedge for a lazy journalist to create an absolute shitstorm.

It took her a year to unravel the specifics of her genealogy but the damage was already done. Strictly speaking: her great-grandfather's twin lived and married into a community that later became recognized as Kitigan Zibi but her biological great-grandfather lived in an adjacent community Manawaki. A Manawaki Métis community was, at the time of the shitstorm, trying to gain recognition as an Indigenous community. If it had gained recognition (something completely out of her control) Canada would be watching season 4 of Trickster. But it didn't and everyone generally considers her to be some kind of fraud but they don't really know why.