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For years, Australian wellness influencer Belle Gibson peddled the idea that she had cured her brain cancer through nutrition and holistic medicine, building a vast social media following upon the false claim that she had defied the odds by eating well and shirking traditional medical treatment like chemotherapy for natural remedies.
Her internet facade spawned a lucrative book deal, speaking engagements and a mobile app. She became a symbol of hope in a community with very little. But in the end, Gibson admitted that she had never had brain cancer at all.
Gibson’s charade is the focus of the new Netflix series “Apple Cider Vinegar,” starring Emmy nominee Kaitlyn Dever as Gibson. Here’s what to know.
Are the events depicted in ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ true?
Netflix is billing the series as a “true-ish story, based on a lie.” The series, which came out Thursday, is a dramatization of the book, “The Woman Who Fooled The World” by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, the two investigative journalists who exposed Gibson in 2015.
Though the lead character shares Gibson’s name and is inspired by her, Gibson was not involved in the production of the series, according to Netflix. Some of the other characters, like Milla, were not based on or inspired by any one individual but were instead “a portrait of influencers at the time,” Samantha Strauss, the show’s creator, said on Netflix’s behind-the-scenes website Tudum.
Who is Belle Gibson?
Gibson described herself in her cookbook, “The Whole Pantry,” which was published in Australia but pulled after her hoax was exposed, as “an inspirational young mother and businesswoman committed to making the world a better place” – Gibson had a son in 2010, one year after her fake brain cancer diagnosis. She wrote that she had grown up in a dysfunctional home and was forced to care for her mother with multiple sclerosis and her brother with autism from a very young age. Her mother later told Australian media that none of this was true.
Of her supposed cancer treatment, she claimed that she withdrew from chemotherapy and radiotherapy after two months to travel the country to learn more about nutrition and holistic medicine. “I was empowering myself to save my own life, through nutrition, patience, determination and love – as well as salt, vitamin and Ayurvedic treatments, craniosacral therapy, oxygen therapy, colonics, and a whole lot of other treatments,” Gibson wrote.
Her story of overcoming cancer was a triumph for the alternative medicine industry.
She would later claim that her initial cancer diagnosis was due to a medical error, despite the fact that she had also informed her followers that the cancer had spread to her spleen, liver, uterus and blood. She also attributed her health problems to a negative reaction to the Gardasil HPV vaccine, and claimed that she once died during a medical procedure, but then emerged from a postoperative coma.
How was the hoax discovered?
As part of her charade, Gibson took part in a number of fundraisers for charities. After the charities reported that they had never received her donations, raising concerns that she had misappropriated the funds to supplement her influencer lifestyle, journalists Donelly and Toscano published a lengthy investigation that exposed Gibson in 2015.
Soon after, Gibson admitted in an interview with the Australian Women’s Weekly that “none of it’s true,” but did not go in depth about the motivations. “She says she is passionate about avoiding gluten, dairy and coffee, but doesn’t really understand how cancer works,” the Australian Women’s Weekly wrote.
“I don’t want forgiveness,” she told the publication. “I just think [speaking out] was the responsible thing to do. Above anything, I would like people to say, ‘Okay, she’s human.’”
What happened to Belle Gibson?
In 2016, Consumer Affairs Victoria took legal action against Gibson, fining her 410,000 Australian dollars (then worth about $290,000) over her false charity donations and ordering her to stop making claims about her brain cancer or treatments in connection with sale or promotion of wellness advice. But it’s unclear how much she has paid.
In 2019, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that she was questioned in federal court about Consumer Affairs Victoria’s analysis showing that she had spent 91,000 Australian dollars over two years, including on trips to Bali and Africa, despite claiming to be in debt. Two years later, it reported that authorities had raided her home a second time to try to recoup her unpaid fine.