Apple Cider Vinegar, currently streaming on Netflix, is a true story series that portrays the life of Belle Gibson (played by Kaitlyn Dever), an Australian fraudster who falsely claimed to have a brain tumour. She established The Whole Pantry brand, purporting to provide advice and support for terminally ill individuals.
However, instead of donating her brand’s profits to charity as she had promised, she used the funds to finance her extravagant lifestyle. The series depicts Belle struggling to single-handedly parent her beloved son, with her partner, Clive (Ashley Zukerman), often stepping in to help.
This has led viewers to question whether Belle had a child in real life.
Does Belle Gibson have children?
Indeed, after relocating from Perth to Melbourne in July 2009, Belle became a mother at the age of 18, one year later.
Her then-boyfriend, Nathan Corbett, was the father. By 2012, Belle was with Clive Rothwell and disclosed that they had suffered a miscarriage, a detail included in the Netflix series.
Many scenes in the series were adapted from The Woman Who Fooled the World, a book by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, the journalists who ultimately exposed her. Some incidents, such as her alleged faking of a seizure at her son’s fourth birthday party, made it into the series, reports the Mirror US.
However, according to showrunner Samantha Strauss, other scenes, like Gibson locking her son in his bedroom, were entirely fictionalised.
Reports from Australian media suggest that Clive played a stepfather role to her son. It’s said that he covered the majority of the rent for their shared home and even funded a month-long African trip for Belle and her son in 2019.
Gibson has refrained from disclosing how her son’s school fees, reportedly amounting to $1,000, were paid. The child would be approximately 14 years old now, but appropriately, he has been kept away from public scrutiny.
Apple Cider Vinegar is on Netflix