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Belle Gibson is an Australian wellness influencer, who scammed people by pretending to be diagnosed with multiple cancers. She started gaining popularity on Instagram after she shared healthy food alternatives, which she claimed were therapeutic to her disease.
She started a recipe book called The Whole Pantry in 2013 which quickly became the top-rated app on the Apple Store in its first month. Belle went on to release her companion cookbook a year later, which created an entire brand for her. She also found a dedicated fanbase that earned nearly half a million dollars.
However, by 2015, there were several suspicions about the authenticity of Gibson's claims, and by 2017, it was revealed publicly that her claims were a complete scam. People found out that Gibson's claims of being diagnosed with cancer and the business she created around it were a scam.
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Belle Gibson is the subject of the Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar, released on February 6, 2025. The official synopsis of the series reads:
"The life of wellness guru Belle Gibson, who had a large social media following, where she pretended to be suffering from cancer but keeping the disease under control using self-care therapies. She confessed that none of it was true."
5 Key Details on Belle Gibson's cancer scam
1) Belle Gibson used social media to fabricate a cancer story
According to an article by Time, Belle Gibson started her Instagram account in 2013 under the username "Healing Belle." She introduced herself to being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
Gibson claimed that eating organic food and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, can be therapeutic towards curing the disease.
2) Belle Gibson created a business out of her mobile app
While Gibson's now-defunct Instagram account was gaining a dedicated fan base, she went on to create a recipe app called The Whole Pantry. An Annual Review of Public Health article noted that the app received 200,000 downloads in the first month. It was also voted Apple Store's "Best Food and Drink App of 2013".
Belle Gibson soon got a book deal with Lantern Books, and an accompanying cookbook was released in October 2014. The app was then launched on Apple Watch, in April 2015. As per an Elle article, Gibson went on to make over $1 million, from the personal brand she had created around herself.
3) Belle Gibson falsely claimed to donate money to charities
After the success of Gibson's The Whole Pantry app and book, she started maintaining a blog of the same name. In her blog, she documented her false cancer journey, and in December 2014, Belle Gibson expanded her brand by registering it with The Whole Life domain.
This company was registered by the name of her partner, Clive Rothwell, and claimed to raise cancer awareness and contribute towards charities. However, questions began to arise about her purpose when she failed to contribute $300,000 to charity. As per a The Sydney Morning Herald article The Whole Life only managed to contribute $7000 to the charity.
4) Belle Gibson falsely claimed of been diagnosed with multiple terminal disease
As per an Independent article, Belle Gibson claimed that she was diagnosed with cancer in multiple parts of her body, including her spleen, uterus, blood, liver, and kidney.
She claimed that she accumulated them, as a side effect of taking the Gardasil vaccine for her cervical cancer. As per a Mashable article, Gibson wrote to her fans on Instagram that she had been diagnosed with cancer of her blood, spleen, brain, uterus, and liver.
“With frustration and ache in my heart ... it hurts me to find space tonight to let you all know with love and strength that I’ve been diagnosed with a third and forth cancer,” she wrote.
Gibson added that she was "hurting" and wanted to "respectfully" let her followers know to hand some of the energy to the greater community and her team. She asked them not to "carry my pain," noting that she had "got this.
However, her claims soon began to appear inconsistent when she said that the cancer had reached her liver and kidneys. This was highly unlikely as per her Facebook post in July 2013, where she wrote that someone was "trying to discredit the natural healing path" that she was on.
“I have been healing a severe and malignant brain cancer for the past few years with natural medicine, Gerson therapy and foods. It is working for me,” Gibson wrote.
5) Belle Gibson admitted to lying about her cancer story
By 2015, the controversy surrounding Belle Gibson's cancer journey began to go viral on the internet. She soon started deleting critical comments on her Facebook page, which questioned the authenticity of her claims. As per an article on the Reality-Based Medicine blog, Gibson soon began selectively deleting posts from her Instagram handle.
All the posts that had any references to her cancer treatment scam or had claims about charities she did not fulfill were removed. Eventually, all the social media accounts related to The Whole Pantry were deleted. In April 2015, Belle Gibson was interviewed by The Australian Women's Weekly where she confessed to having faked her entire cancer journey.
As per an article on ABC, the Federal Court in Melbourne found her guilty of misleading her readers for years, after her false claim of being diagnosed with brain cancer. In September 2017, she was ordered a fine of $ 410,000 for claiming false donations to charities.
She did not pay the fine and did not appear on her trial. Gibson has the potential penalty of being jailed for an undetermined number of years. As per a new.com.au article, the Federal Court released a letter in 2017, which stated that Belle Gibson was $170,000 in debt.
To know more about Gibson's cancer scam, watch the Australian drama documentary Apple Cider Vinegar on Netflix.
