Before I randomly started Apple Cider Vinegar on Netflix a few weeks ago – I had no idea who Belle Gibson was. I didn’t know anything about who she was or what she did. But wow.
Belle Gibson manipulated and gaslit her audience into believing that she healed her brain cancer through “whole foods” and a healthy lifestyle. There was just one small hiccup – she never had terminal brain cancer. Or any other terminal medical illness for that matter. Her entire empire was built on a lie.
Gibson is a 33-year-old Australian mother, former wellness influencer, and the creator of The Whole Pantry mobile app and cookbook. She began on Instagram in 2012 (as many influencers do) preaching to her followers that she had been given “four months to live, tops”, but she healed herself through a healthy lifestyle and nutrition.
In 2013, Gibson created The Whole Pantry app that included paleo, gluten-free, and vegan recipes. The Whole Pantry was named Apple’s best food and drink app and the second-best overall iPhone app. In 2015, Apple removed the app from their app store and Penguin Publishing dropped her cookbook and as a client, after word got out that Gibson had fooled everyone. Netflix created a dramatized retelling of Gibson’s story – for which she was never paid a cent for.
What’s fact and what’s fiction in Apple Cider Vinegar? Surprisingly, the majority of the show is mostly based on fact and the truth. Obviously we all live for the drama, so the writers for the show added a layer of friendship betrayal and two-faced intentions. The show also created a detrimental rivalry between Belle Gibson and Milla Blake to be the model cancer survivor – when in reality, the two only met once or twice and occasionally talked online.
Chanelle, played by Aisha Dee, began as Blake’s, Alycia Debnam-Carey, best friend and biggest supporter in the dramatization. Then Chanelle switched over to manage Gibson’s brand – creating a rift between Chanelle and Blake. In reality, Chanelle and Blake were never best friends. Chanelle was simply an entrepreneur that had befriended Gibson after she just moved to Melbourne.
Chanelle was the first person, in the show and in reality, to truly question Gibson’s brain cancer claims. Chanelle asked Gibson directly if she was sick, to which Gibson started off her slew of hysterics. Chanelle asked Gibson for actual physical medical documents, even just one, to back up her claim of having any kind of cancer – to which Gibson replied that she didn’t want to keep that negative energy inside her home. She also claimed she couldn’t receive an actual diagnosis because she was “too busy.” After trying for hours on end to get some shred of evidence, Chanelle decided enough was enough, so she talked to the police, newspapers, the media, and anyone who would listen.
Blake’s character in Apple Cider Vinegar was based on Jess Ainscough, who blogged about her cancer recovery through holistic methods and alternative therapies under the name “The Wellness Warrior.” Essentially, the story surrounding Blake’s plotline in Apple Cider Vinegar is largely true. Ainscough was diagnosed with “a rare, slow-growing and incurable cancer in 2008 at the age of just 22 after discovering lumps in her arm. Doctors wanted to amputate; Ainscough refused, instead embarking on a quest to heal herself.” She was determined to heal herself through raw juices, Gerson therapy (called Hirsh therapy in the show), and coffee enemas five times a day.
Blake was successful through her book Make Peace With Your Plate and succeeded in her proceedings as a motivational speaker. While Ainscough believed that the Gerson Institute was working and healing her cancer, her cancer was metastasizing. And not only that, but Gerson therapy has been proven that it cannot cure cancer naturally. Sadly, Ainscough passed away in 2015 at the age of 29. Despite the fact that they only met and spoke a handful of times, Gibson not only attended her funeral, but loudly wept at a funeral she was never invited to.
At the time of Ainscough’s funeral, Gibson had received an email from two reporters from The Age, “asking probing questions about her business’s alleged donations to various charities.” The Age decided to go after Gibson with charity fraud because while there was no physical proof Gibson was lying about her cancer diagnosis, such claims could be considered defamatory and slander and the impact could be lost.
Gibson was never found guilty on the count of faking brain cancer, but the Australian federal court fined her $216,000 USD which she had raised for charity and failed to donate. Gibson had claimed that 100% of the proceeds from the sale of her cookbook would go towards a family of a child with inoperable brain cancer and various charities. That family never saw a cent.
Scrambling for any sort of sympathy from her followers, Gibson maintained that she was “misdiagnosed” or “misled,” but she truly believed that she had terminal brain cancer. However, how much she intentionally deceived others or honestly convinced herself of a fake illness remains unclear to this day. Gibson never once apologized for her actions. The fine that the Australian federal court served Belle Gibson still remains unpaid.
Kaitlyn Dever, the actress who portrays Belle Gibson in Apple Cider Vinegar, acknowledges the nuance that is required to be able to accurately portray Gibson in her complex manner. Dever told Tudum, “Our show’s Belle is a very complicated person. She is so good at being a chameleon, taking on totally different personas, and doing everything she can to get what she wants. She’s very ruthless and very determined.”
Throughout each episode of Apple Cider Vinegar you are suffering from emotional whiplash between sympathy and pure disgust for Gibson and her actions.
Even looking at the facts of this twisted series of events, you can’t help, but feel conflicting emotions for Gibson. A part of me, albeit small, feels bad for her, considering her desperate need to be loved and accepted after being an adolescent outcast, but the majority of my opinion remains firm in the conviction that she deserves to pay for the harm she did to vulnerable people.
Apple Cider Vinegar was incredibly well done through the acting, the complexity and nuance of every character, the close-to-accurate retelling of real events, and for creating cognitive dissonance for the audience facing their feelings about Gibson. I have and will continue to recommend this show to anyone who is curious. I encourage you all to see for yourself who Belle Gibson really is.