So we're in a bit of a pickle here. My partner recently left her PhD program due to mental health among other reasons. We're both sober and academia was having a negative impact on her sobriety, as her research group was insistent on her drinking at each social event, even when she declined. She also felt very left out, and her supervisor clearly was unfair to her and treated her with open disrespect. Some examples (according to her):

• He would laugh at her during her seminars, bomb her with questions that she was unable to answer and criticize her to the point where every time she came home from holding a seminar, she would be in tears.

• Leave her out of group discussions and shut the door in front of her.

• Change the language to the local language from English when my partner tried to join a conversation (she does not speak the local language). The group was also ridiculing her as she was lacking knowledge of this language, knowing full well she's a foreigner.

• Leave her name out of papers she contributed to.

• Randomly pulled her aside last year to tell her that she's not going to graduate with no warning signs. She published 3 papers during her PhD, which is a lot for her very theoretical field, but this was not enough in the eyes of her advisor.

• Saw that she was struggling a lot, but never offered help even when she asked. Just told her to "deal with it like an adult".

• Humiliated her multiple times in front of other people, calling her all sorts of names ("stupid", "idiot" etc)

Perhaps it's fair to say that me and my partner also went through a lot together, and I put her through some tough times as well. Earlier this year she figured that enough is enough and left. She got a part time job as an English and math teacher, and began working on her own educational company. I am very proud of her. She is self-employed, and although it's not as prestigious of a career choice in her eyes, she is much happier with her life.

A lot of her clients are educational publishers, educational technology, and more. Recently though, a few of these clients have pulled back without saying anything and essentially ghosting her. I should mention that she is very open about her work on social media and actively uses platforms like LinkedIn.

We did not think anything about this. I work on a freelance basis as well, and sometimes clients just ghost. It was not until recently that one client asked her during a meeting if she had ever worked with her supervisor X. Apparently, her client was contacted by someone in the old research group of X (presumably X himself, we do not know for sure), telling them that she is a neglectful employee who has lied about her qualifications (she has not, she openly talks about being an academia dropout, and only lists her master's degree in her CV as far as I know), and should not be given any projects or money.

This person also brought up her alcohol problem to the client, even though my girlfriend told her supervisor about it in complete confidence, after which he still encouraged her to drink.

Worst of all, the client apparently said that this person that contacted them has let them know that my girlfriend is actively neglecting her taxes, and is encouraging a potential investigation.

Moreover, someone she is on decent terms with in her old research group recently also reached out to her. They let her know that her old supervisor is STILL shitting on her for dropping out and making fun of her new career. He also ridicules her for her new career, making claims how it is never going to work out, etc.

She also has a few researchers she worked with in the past reaching out to her, asking if everything is okay as her supervisor is making very bold claims, and it's making people generally a bit uncomfortable.

So my question is -- what do we do about this? Do we just call it quits and leave the country? We have no idea. Any advice is welcomed. Please help.