For those not familiar with Australia’s most infamous wellness influencer, Belle Gibson, the story of her meteoric rise and rapid fall, is one for the scandalous ages.
Containing plot points with everything from the beginnings of Instagram and influencer culture, to a shocking exposé of lies and dangerous misinformation, the real life Belle Gibson victim-to-villain pipeline has all the makings of a true-crime drama. So much so, that almost a decade after the influencer’s deception was revealed to the world, Netflix announced its retelling of the tale in the new series Apple Cider Vinegar.
So who exactly is Belle Gibson and why are we still talking about her? Let’s take it back to the beginning with a quick refresher on the real events that inspired the upcoming series.
The True Story Behind The Belle Gibson Controversy
Though the dizzying ascent and swift fall of the disgraced wellness blogger might have felt fast, the path that led to the influencer’s downfall was paved with a long history of bizarre admissions, oversights and professional negligence.
In 2013, Instagram – still in its infancy – was prime property for the burgeoning influencer scene. The platform was still relatively unencumbered by algorithmic pressures and stories of overnight success were increasingly common – especially when it came to the world of wellness.
Enter the 23-year-old mother-of-one, Belle Gibson, or @healing_belle as she was then known, whose healthy living blog Wholefood Recipes was becoming increasingly popular – though not for the exact reasons one might expect.
Announcing to her followers that she had successfully healed herself of a terminal brain cancer diagnosis – with nothing but wholefoods and alternate therapies no less – Gibson’s story was considered a medical miracle by her newly gained (and growing) followers, whose unquestioning support and admiration helped propel her to the heights of her social media fame.
Spurred on by numerous profiles in reputable magazines and news outlets, the hype surrounding the self-healer was so spectacular that upon launching her top-rating food app, The Whole Pantry, Apple selected it as one of the first slated to appear on its upcoming Apple Watch.
In 2014, Penguin published a cookbook promoting the lifestyle and recipes that supposedly helped rid the blogger’s body of terminal cancer, garnering tens of thousands of dollars in sales, and more scrutiny than ever before.
But despite her seemingly unbridled success, the freshly minted media empire began to fall apart almost as fast as it had formed.
A 2015 Fairfax Media investigation into her fundraising activities found that the blogger’s public pledge to donate portions of profits from the sale of her app and cookbook, as well as additional funds solicited from her well-meaning fans, never came to fruition.
“Don’t forget – for every app downloaded until this Sunday, your purchase goes straight to The 2h Project and the Bumi Sehat Foundation to prevent maternal and infant deaths,” she said on social media during the campaign.
Questions were raised about the validity of Gibson’s promises after she claimed to have already donated to several charities, which when approached by journalists, confirmed that wasn’t the case. A spokeswoman for the Bumi Sehat Foundation told The Age: “I can say with confidence that we have never received a donation from Belle Gibson.”
“We have not yet donated the naïve, yet confident amount of $300,000, considering the very quickly [arising] issues with cash flow versus growth, providing content, managing external expectations,” Belle Gibson wrote in a statement responding to the investigation at the time.
“It was with nothing but good intention that we publicised that a percentage of profit from the app will be donated to charity. The intentions always were and still are to give back. The execution of this has obviously been flawed.”
It was subsequently revealed that neither Gibson, nor her associated companies were legally registered as fundraisers, and attempts to reclaim the narrative by ensuring donated funds would eventually be allocated “when the cash-flow management is stabilised,” proved too little, too late for the blogger’s dwindling support network.
A month later, The Australian published an article questioning Gibson’s cancer diagnosis, prompting Gibson to remove all traces of her history and information from Instagram and Facebook. An incriminating move, which Apple responded to by quietly withdrawing her app from its store and Apple Watch showcase.
Did Belle Gibson Fake Cancer?
Belle Gibson’s shock revelation was revealed in the May 2015 issue of Australian Women’s Weekly, where the disgraced blogger agreed to a sit down interview in the wake of the scandal.
The Weekly asks her outright if she has ever had cancer, to which Gibson responds: “No… None of it’s true.”
“I don’t want forgiveness,” she continues. “I just think [speaking out] was the responsible thing to do. Above anything, I would like people to say, ‘Okay, she’s human. She’s obviously had a big life. She’s respectfully come to the table and said what she’s needed to say, and now it’s time for her to grow and heal.”
As part of her ‘healing’ process, it’s revealed that Gibson’s interview was facilitated through a corporate advisory firm, who agreed to take on her case pro-bono and even organised for the “troubled” Gibson to see a psychologist.
Since the scandal broke, Gibson said she’s become the most hated woman in the country: “[The backlash] is beyond horrible,” she shares. “In the last two years, I have worked every single day living and raising up an online community of people who supported each other … I understand the confusion and suspicion, but I also know that people need to draw a line in the sand where they still treat someone with some level of respect or humility – and I have not been receiving that.”
The level of Gibson’s delusion became quite clear as the interview went on, making comments about her troubled childhood and alleging that as soon as she started school, her mother abandoned her. “When I started school, my mum went, ‘my daughter is grown up now’,” she says. “All of a sudden, I was walking to school on my own, making school lunches and cleaning the house every day.
“It was my responsibility to do grocery shopping, do the washing, arrange medical appointments and pick up my brother. I didn’t have toys.”
The journalist notes that the claims were impossible to clarify, and that some of her memories “are unconvincing and come across as implausibly Dickensian.”
Was Belle Gibson Charged?
In March 2017 a federal court judge found Belle Gibson guilty of misleading and deceptive behaviour.
The judge presiding over the case, Justice Mortimer, said that Gibson’s cancer claims “were obviously false.”
“I am satisfied that, in the context the statements were made, members of the community reading those statements would be erroneously led to believe that Ms Gibson was suffering from terminal brain cancer where this was never the case,” Mortimer said.
Belle Gibson wasn’t in court for the ruling and had failed to appear for all her previous hearings.
Six months after the decision was handed down, Gibson was fined $410,000 by the federal court.
At the time, Mortimer’s judgement read: “If Ms Gibson were to actually pay the pecuniary penalties imposed (whether by instalments or otherwise), in the court’s respectful opinion … it may be appropriate for consideration to be given to whether there is a mechanism by which some or all of the funds can be donated to some or all of the organisations, and people, Ms Gibson had promised would receive donations.
“In that way, some good might still come for the vulnerable people … which were indirectly drawn into this unconscionable sequence of events.”
Unfortunately Justice Mortimer’s hopeful considerations didn’t eventuate, with Gibson called back to court in June of 2019 for failing to service her fine.
The court heard that Gibson was “not in a position to pay a $410,000 fine at this stage,” before forensic account analysis revealed the 27-year-old had spent about $91,000 between 2017 and 2019, which the disgraced blogger denied.
Without being able to reach a satisfactory conclusion, Consumer Affairs Victoria was forced to issue a warrant ‘of seizure or sale’ against Gibson, which escalated into a ‘seize and sell’ warrant on Gibson’s home by January the following year.
Where Is Belle Gibson Now?
Fraudster Belle Gibson has maintained a fairly low profile since her last court date, the fines from which she is reportedly still yet to pay.
While not much is known about her present day whereabouts, Gibson appeared in a social media video reported in January 2020, that showed the conwoman attending an event for Ethiopia’s Oromo community in Melbourne.
The video shows Gibson wearing a headscarf and referring to herself as Sabontu, while switching between the Oromo language and English.
“I think this was a gift, a blessing that was given to me both by your people but also a blessing [from] our Lord, from Allah,” she told the interviewer.
She also revealed that she had been involved in the Oromo community for the last four years, advising those campaigning for the liberation of Oromo to “Defend yourself, defend your honour and defend your identity, sleep with one eye open.”
READ NEXT: Netflix Is Telling Belle Gibson’s Story In Series, ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’
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