- Belle Gibson was a wellness influencer who said she had brain cancer.
- In 2015, she said she did not have, nor had ever had, cancer.
- Netflix's "Apple Cider Vinegar" tells a fictionalized version of her story. Here's where she is today.
In the early 2010s, Belle Gibson built a wellness empire on a lie.
The influencer, whose full legal name is Annabelle Natalie Gibson, established a platform in the early days of Instagram, creating a nutrition app called The Whole Pantry that eventually led to a cookbook of the same name. She amassed more than 200,000 followers on her now-defunct account, as well as accolades including Cosmopolitan's 2014 Fun Fearless Female Award.
The influencer claimed that she'd been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2009 and had extended her weekslong prognosis into years through natural treatments and nutrition. That lie brought in money: In 2015, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that her Whole Pantry recipe app, which cost 3.79 Australian dollars, had been purchased more than 300,000 times.
Now, Gibson's story is the basis of Netflix's "Apple Cider Vinegar," a series starring Kaitlyn Dever that bills itself as a "true-ish story based on a lie." The series presents a fictionalized account of Gibson's life and downfall.
Here's what happened to Gibson in real life.
Gibson's downfall began with reports she'd lied about charitable donations
The Fairfax Media reporters Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, who wrote the book "The Woman Who Fooled The World: Belle Gibson's Cancer Con," reported in 2015 that Gibson hadn't donated money she solicited online in the name of multiple charitable organizations. Gibson attributed the delay in some donations to "cash flow" problems within the business.
Gibson's cookbook publisher, Penguin Australia, subsequently dropped her book. Apple, which had marketed the Whole Pantry app alongside the launch of its Apple Watch, also removed it from promotions.
Gibson walked back her claim that she had terminal brain cancer and was fined
In an April 2015 interview with Australian Women's Weekly, Gibson admitted that she did not have, nor had ever had, cancer.
"None of it's true," she told the publication.
"I don't want forgiveness," she said. "I just think [speaking out] was the responsible thing to do. Above anything, I would like people to say: 'OK, she's human. She's obviously had a big life.'"
Gibson told the publication that she was told by two people, in 2009 and 2014, that she had cancer. The journalist Clair Weaver wrote that Gibson's stories about her diagnosis were "strange, involving men treating her with machines said to be capable of both diagnosing and treating cancer."
Gibson also spoke about her story in a "60 Minutes" Australia interview; the Sydney Morning Herald reported she was paid AU$75,000 for it.
In 2017, per court documents viewed by Business Insider, an Australian Federal Court judge ordered that Gibson pay a total fine of AU$410,000 for five violations of Australian consumer law, including failing to donate a week's worth of app sales to the family of a boy with an inoperable brain tumor.
In court appearances in May and June 2019, Gibson said that she was unable to pay the fine, the ABC reported.
Victoria Sheriff's officers raided Gibson's home twice in January 2020 and May 2021, attempting to recoup the fine after Gibson failed to pay, the ABC reported. At the time, the amount totaled more than AU$500,000 including penalties and interest.
Gibson's case was marked as finalized and abandoned in February 2021, according to documentation on the Commonwealth Courts site.
Gibson said in 2019 that she'd been 'adopted' by the Ethiopian community in Melbourne
In 2019, Gibson appeared to have embedded herself in the Ethiopian Oromo community in Melbourne. In an October 2019 video published on social media, Gibson spoke Oromo and introduced herself as Sabontu, saying she felt "blessed to be adopted" by the community, The Age and the ABC reported in January 2020.
Members of the community told the ABC that they hadn't been aware of Gibson's social media past before the raid on her home that month.
Today, Gibson doesn't maintain a public social media presence. She told a reporter for the Daily Telegraph Australia that she was "not interested in a chat" when reached by phone when reached for comment.
An email listed on a LinkedIn profile that matches Gibson's information didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
"Apple Cider Vinegar" is now streaming on Netflix.
Correction: February 6, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated when Gibson said she was "adopted" by the Ethiopian community in Melbourne. It was in 2019, not 2020.
