Netflix’s highly anticipated new drama series has been released on the platform today, February 6. It focuses on influencer Belle Gibson, who promoted wellness and alternative medicines after she claimed it healed her brain tumour.
The series follows Gibson, portrayed by actress Kaitlyn Denver, and her rise to social media fame that sees her building a wellness empire, including an app and cookbook, on the back of her claims that natural remedies and nutrition cured her tumour.
Alongside building business ventures, the Australian also raised a lot of money for charities, which saw the beginning of her downfall after journalists began to investigate her donations.
Reporters eventually discovered that Gibson had never donated the money she had raised, and as scrutiny increased, it was revealed Gibson had also fabricated her cancer diagnosis.
As a result, Gibson was taken to court and fined AU$410,000 (£205,000) with the Australian Federal Court finding her guilty of breaching five counts of consumer law. But what’s happened to Gibson since being found guilty?
In 2019, Gibson had failed to pay her fine after claiming to be unable to. She was interrogated by the courts after it was revealed she had spent AU$90,000 between 2017 and 2019. Gibson’s house was raided in 2020 to try and recoup what she owed in fines.
ABC reported the then 27-year-old disputed the claims in Melbourne’s Federal Court, saying: “I don’t believe your figure is correct.”
It was reported by The Guardian that as of 2021, she had still failed to pay her fine, resulting in her house being raided again. Due to interest and cost, Gibson subsequently racked up more money owed, totalling to AU$500,000 (£250,000).
In February 2024, a news reporter from Channel 9’s A Current Affair confronted her at a petrol station, and asked why she hadn’t paid her fine yet. She told them to “have some humanity”, saying “I haven’t paid things because I can’t afford to”.
In January 2020, after Gibson’s house was raided, a video from 2019 resurfaced, showing her wearing a headscarf and speaking broken Oromo, discussing the political situation in Ethiopia with an interviewer.
In the video she referred to Ethiopia as “back home” and claimed to have been adopted by the Ethiopian community in Melbourne after volunteering for four years, calling the adoption a gift from “Allah”.
On the same day the video resurfaced, the president of the Australian Oromo Community Association in Victoria, Tarekegn Chimdi, stated that Gibson was not a registered volunteer, “is not a community member and she’s also not working with the community”.
Since being exposed as a scammer, Gibson’s app, The Whole Pantry, has been removed from app stores. Her book has been shelved by publishers, and Penguin Australia agreed to pay $30,000 to the Victorian Consumer Law Fund for failing to fact check Gibson’s claims.