Netflix has just released Apple Cider Vinegar, a dramatised version of the true story of Belle Gibson. The health influencer infamously faked cancer to boost her brand.

Right now, Instagram is full of influencers wanting to share their brands. They launch companies and are constantly trying to sell products. Wellness scammer Belle Gibson was much like that. She just resorted in dark methods to get people invested in her. Hers has become one of the biggest deceptions in the digital era.

The Netflix synopsis for Apple Cider Vinegar says: “Set at the birth of Instagram, Apple Cider Vinegar follows two young women who set out to cure their life-threatening illnesses through health and wellness, influencing their global online communities along the way. All of which would be incredibly inspiring if it were all true. This is a true-ish story based on a lie, about the rise and fall of a wellness empire; the culture that built it up and the people who tore it down.”

The series is inspired by book, The Woman Who Fooled the World, written by the journalists who exposed Belle. So here’s the true story behind Apple Cider Vinegar, and what Belle Gibson did.

via Netflix

Apple Cider Vinegar is based on the true story of Belle Gibson

Belle Gibson is an Australian influencer, who claimed to have cured her terminal brain cancer through alternative therapies and nutrition. Everyone wanted to know her story, so she quickly grew a huge platform. Belle created The Whole Pantry mobile app and its later companion cookbook.

Throughout her wellness career, Belle claimed to have been diagnosed with many cancer pathologies, all of which she claimed to have cured naturally. She pinned her health on things such as diet, nutrition and natural supplements. She also claimed she had been donating a huge sum of her profits to charities. But, it was all a lie.

In 2015, investigative journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano exposed her claims about having cancer. They also exposed her for claiming to have donated proceeds from her wellness app to charity.

As her brand began to collapse, in an April 2015 interview, Belle Gibson admitted to everything. She confessed she’d never had cancer, and said: “none of it’s true”.

Belle Gibson was later fined for engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct, and unconscionable conduct in breach of Australian Consumer Law. Her lies were described as “particularly predatory” and a  “deceit on a grand scale, for personal profit”.