Meet The Instagram Wellness Guru Featured In Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar Who Faked Cancer And Caused A Scandal

Way before health influencer was a thing, Belle Gibson, an Australian influencer, and an Instagram Wellness Guru did it. The year was 2023, and she, 20 back then had declared to the world on her Instagram that she had been diagnosed with a "malignant brain cancer" and was given "six weeks, four months top" to live. However, she denied to opt for any radiotherapy or chemotherapy and wanted to start a "quest to heal myself naturally...through nutrition, patience, determination and love."

This is story form a decade old, has still not lost its relevant and has been featured in Netflix's latest release Apple Cider Vinegar. The story of Belle Gibson about a terminal illness and promoting alternative therapies continue to remain a warning a decade on.

The problem is not that she shared her story with 200,000 followers about her wellness journey, but the lies she told. Gibson faked her terminal illness just to promote her newly wellness and nutrition app and cookbook The Whole Pantry that she credited her diet for curing her terminal illness. Both of which soon became best-selling. She was also dubbed as "the most inspiring woman you have met this year" by Elle Australia in 2014, reports BBC. In fact, Cosmopolitan gave her a "Fun, Fearless Female" award.

What Is Her Story?

She claimed to have cancer in her blood, spleen, brain, uterus, and liver. However, soon her lies were exposed. Apple Cider Vinegar that features her story about the lies she had spread and the medical scam, is based on the book by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, who were the first one to bring out Gibson's medical history, revealing that she never had been diagnosed with cancer. The book is called The Woman Who Fooled the World.

Donelly and Toscano received a tip from Gibson's friend Chanelle who doubted her when she had a seizure but refused to call an ambulance or take her to the hospital. Her lies began to unravel in March 2015, when the Australian newspaper carried the investigation revealing that she never made the donations she claimed. However, she blamed "cash flow" as the issue for the delay. Then The Age published accounts of her close friends who questioned Gibson's illness, in fact, an Australian neurosurgeon, Professor Andrew Kaye shared that her claims did not add up.

Not just that, but everything was a lie, her name, her age, her story. When questioned again, in a June interview with 60 Minutes Australia, she said that she was wrongly diagnosed with cancer by a German alternative medical practitioner in 2009. She claimed that she did not know she was healthy until 2011.

"I lived for years with the fear that I was dying," Gibson said in the interview. "I wasn’t living in a space where I didn’t know that this was my reality."

"I’ve not been intentionally untruthful. I’ve been openly speaking about what was my reality," she said.

Where Is Belle Gibson Now?

After her lies were revealed, her wellness and nutrition app was pulled from the App Store, her book launch was canceled and Penguin stripped The Whole Pantry from shelves in Australia.

What could've been the reason for her to lie about her illness? Many think that she was suffering from Munchausen’s syndrome, though she denied any such thing. As per the National Health Service (NHS), it is a psychological condition where someone pretends to be ill or deliberately produces symptoms of illness in themselves. The intention is to project themselves in a "sick" role so that people care for them and they become the center of attention. It is named after Baron Munchausen, a fictional character named for a real-life retired German officer Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, who became famous for telling "wild, unbelievable tales about his exploits."