There are plenty of unmissable TV shows to keep us company throughout the cold, wintry weather we’re currently experiencing. But while a good number of the dramas we’re being treated to feature adventures that are the work of the wildest imaginations, Netflix’s latest offering is stranger than fiction.
Apple Cider Vinegar is a comprehensive deep dive into the world of alternative, natural treatments claiming to cure chronic, severe and even deadly diseases. The series focuses on Belle Gibson (played by Kaitlyn Dever), an Australian influencer who garnered a significant social-media platform by sharing her wellness tips and health journey, after she claimed she was living with a malignant brain tumour. Gibson claimed that she was using alternative medicine to manage her symptoms, having supposedly experienced severe side effects from conventional treatments.
But Gibson’s expanding wellness empire was built entirely on a lie; she was exposed to never even have had cancer.
Kaitlyn Dever plays Belle Gibson
Apple Cider Vinegar also borrows from a second influencer, Jessica Ainscough (though renamed to Milla Blake in the series, played by Alycia Debnam-Carey). Like Gibson, Ainscough also touted alternative therapies to battle her life-limiting disease, although unlike Gibson, Ainscough was genuinely suffering from cancer.
Here, Bazaar explores the fascinating true story behind Apple Cider Vinegar, and where the key players are now.
Apple Cider Vinegar: who is Belle Gibson?
Gibson rose to prominence on Instagram on 2009, when the platform was still in its infancy. Then just 20, the Australian-based influencer claimed to have terminal brain cancer.
Posting under the handle @Healing_Belle, Gibson explained that she initially underwent chemo and radiotherapy, but found the side effects debilitating and said she had between “six weeks to four months tops” to live.
Instead, Gibson went on to claim that she switched to alternative, natural remedies and went on a strict, healthy diet – and that it kept her cancer at bay.
The real Belle Gibson appeared on TV to defend her actions
Gibson’s story touched heartstrings and she quickly amassed more than 200,000 followers, with people equally inspired and moved. The influencer’s advocacy for natural remedies saw her monetise her highly restrictive diet on a website, then app, titled The Whole Pantry.
At the very height of her popularity in 2013, Gibson signed a book deal with Penguin Australia to turn The Whole Pantry into a cookbook. In the recipe guide, Gibson wrote: “[I have embarked] on a quest to heal myself naturally… empowering myself to save my own life, through nutrition, patience, determination and love – as well as vitamin and Ayurvedic treatments, craniosacral therapy, and a whole lot of other treatments.” She became a bona-fide celebrity, profiled by some of Australia’s legacy media and winning awards for her fundraising for charity – she was even among the first few influencers in the world to test the early models of the Apple Watch.
Gibson’s story seemed to take a tragic turn in 2014, when she announced on Instagram that the cancer had spread to her blood, spleen, uterus and liver. However, there was now a rumbling of unease around her claims. No medical records had been shown to confirm her story, with most people accepting Gibson on face value. She also had a growing number of genuine cancer sufferers among her followers – some who may have opted to delay medical treatment in favour of Gibson’s diet.
Belle Gibson’s ’60 Minute’ interview is recreated in ’Apple Cider Vinegar’
One person who expressed scepticism over Gibson was the journalist Richard Guilliatt, who had lost his wife to breast cancer years before. Guilliatt appears in part in Apple Cider Vinegar, via a journalist character named Justin, who appears to be an amalgamation of him, Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano – two reporters who uncovered that Gibson never passed funds raised to charities.
Guilliatt interviewed Gibson about her cancer, where she backtracked on the previous claim that it had spread to other major organs. Speaking on a BBC documentary about the fraud, Guillatt said: “I was just completely stunned that she would backtrack from this extraordinary claim that she’d only made seven months earlier. I walked away from that interview with my head spinning.”
Further suspicions were aroused when posts from a skateboarding forum came to light, which showed that Gibson had lied about her age and continued to lie about having major health problems, including heart attacks. Photos of Gibson taken from that time also showed the influencer looking remarkably healthy, while medical experts said there were no records of someone diagnosed with Gibson’s type of brain tumour living beyond five years.
As the net started to close in on Gibson, the influencer admitted to an Australian magazine in 2015 that she had lied about having cancer. Her online following rapidly plummeted, and her book The Whole Pantry was withdrawn from shelves and quickly pulped.
A further interview on 60 Minutes the following year saw Gibson claim that an immunologist and neurologist named Dr Mark Johns scanned ‘frequencies’ in her body, which ultimately led to her diagnosis of brain cancer. However, there is no record of Dr Johns existing.
Kaitlyn Dever as Belle Gibson
Where is Belle Gibson now?
The influencer now keeps a low profile following the collapse of her empire. In September 2017, a federal court based in Melbourne ordered Belle Gibson to pay $410,000 (approximately £204,000) to the state of Victoria – however, none of that money is recorded to have been paid back. Earlier this year, a spokesperson for Consumers Affair Victoria told Australia’s Herald Sun that they were still pursuing the money that she owes.
As of August 2021, Gibson is thought to live with her son and friend or partner Clive Rothwell in a rented property. In February last year, a news reporter from Australia’s Channel 9 confronted Gibson in a petrol station about not paying her fines.
“I haven’t paid things because I can’t afford to,” she told the reporter.
Who is Apple Cider Vinegar’s Milla Blake based on?
Although renamed in the series, Milla is thought to be loosely based on Jessica Ainscough, who was better known as ‘The Wellness Warrior’ on social media.
Ainscough was just 22 when she was diagnosed with a rare cancer, epithelioid sarcoma, in her arm. Medical experts offered to amputate her arm to prolong life expectancy, but ultimately not cure her of her disease. While an experimental form of chemotherapy – a high dose injection into her arm – worked temporarily, Ainscough’s cancer returned and she found herself becoming frustrated with the perceived limits of traditional medicine.
In 2010, Ainscough travelled to Mexico to become better acquainted with Gerson therapy, a controversial and contested treatment for cancer. The therapy was conceived by a German doctor in the 1930s, who claimed that the method cured his debilitating migraines. It is a regime not for the faint of heart; following a a strict organic vegetarian diet made up of fruit and vegetables high in potassium and low in sodium, and regular coffee or castor oil enemas. Up to 13 glasses of fresh juice a day may also be consumed. It is believed this method ‘cleanses the liver’, while the enemas further help to extract toxins from the liver and colon.
Cancer Research UK maintains that there is no scientific research to support the regime, with Gerson therapy potentially causing other issues including dehydration, constipation and colitis.
Ainscough also documented her journey on social media. She amassed a devoted number of fans, including Belle Gibson, with the two forming a friendship. Gibson once described Ainscough as one of her “greatest teachers and champions”. However, Ainscough’s health started to deteriorate, especially following the death of her mother Sharyn from breast cancer in 2013. Sharyn had also eschewed traditional medicine in favour of Gerson therapy.
Speaking frankly on her website, Ainscough wrote: “When my mum became really ill, my cancer started to become aggressive again. After she died, things really started flaring up.
“For the past few months, I’ve been pretty much bedridden.”
While she then started to return to conventional medicine at the end of 2014, Ainscough sadly passed away in 2015 aged 29.
Who is Apple Cider Vinegar’s Lucy?
While Lucy (played by Tilda Cobham-Hervey) is based in fiction, she also represents the numerous genuine cancer sufferers who followed the alternative treatments promoted by Gibson and other wellness influencers, and became sicker or even died as a result.
Apple Cider Vinegar should serve as a bleak parable about exercising caution when taking advice from so-called online experts from social-media platforms.
In an age of mis- and disinformation, where online personas are carefully curated, it is important to remember that much of what we read and see on social media should be taken with a healthy dose of scepticism. If in doubt, always consult a licensed medical professional.