The remarkable tale of a 21-year-old social media influencer who duped millions of followers into believing she could manage her terminal cancer diagnosis through wellness and healthy eating is to be told in a new ITV documentary.
Instagram’s Worst Con Artist recounts the inside story of Belle Gibson, who garnered fame and fortune as she chronicled her path to health on the social media platform.
However, it all unravelled when an investigation into her life revealed it was a sham and she had never been diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer.
In the two-part documentary series, to be aired on Thursday 25 April and Thursday 2 May at 9pm, viewers will hear from family and friends who speak on the record for the first time about Ms Gibson and how their suspicions were raised and from the journalists who investigated her story.
Who is Belle Gibson?
Australian Annabelle Gibson was born in Launceston, Tasmania and went to school in Manly, Queensland.
She is understood to have later moved to Perth in Western Australia and then Melbourne 2009, where she became a mother a year later at the age of 18.
She claimed her diagnosis of a malignant brain tumour came in 2009, when she was told she had six weeks to live. But she said she had given up her chemotherapy treatment after it made her sick and instead decided to adopt a wellness and natural living lifestyle.
Among her other claims were that she had had had heart surgery several times, died momentarily on the operating table and had had a stroke. Although, she bears no surgical scars from any heart surgery.
And she later said her cancer had spread to her blood, spleen, uterus and liver.
In August 2013, she launched the app The Whole Pantry which was reportedly downloaded 200,000 times within its first month and voted Apple’s Best Food and Drink App of 2013. it offered recipes and healthy lifestyle tips.
In her first post, she wrote:“Five years ago today, I was sitting in front of a man who was about to tell me I was dying from malignantbrain cancer with six months to live.”
The app gained a huge following as she promoted her healing through healthy nutrition and holistic medicine. She championed the use of natural remedies over medication.
Soon afterwards in 2014, she signed a book deal with lantern Books, an imprint of Penguin Books, for a cookbook entitled The Whole Pantry.
The book’s preface stated she had been “stable for two years now with no growth of the cancer”.
But her downfall began with investigations into her assertions she had donated some of her proceeds to charity.
In the documentary, one of her closest friends Chanelle McAuliffe described how she started to get suspicious when she witnessed Belle have a “seizure2 which she then recovered from very quickly when someone suggested calling an ambulance.
Journalist Richard Guilliatt, whose wife had been diagnosed with cancer, describes how he started ringing experts to ask their opinions on Ms Gibson’s claims.
He told the documentary: “I realised, if it’s a scam, it’s a really big scam.
“She had hundreds of thousands of followers all around the world.”
He arranged to meet Belle for an interview and shares the recording of his meeting where Belle claimed her doctor had diagnosed her and then gone missing, making her realise she might have been misdiagnosed and maybe didn’t have cancer after all.
Mr Guilliatt said: “Christ almighty, Belle, you’re kidding, you actually don’t have cancer? This was just the last thing I expected…Belle Gibson just recanted on the record. She’s basically saying she can’t back up her cancer claims.”
Where is Belle Gibson now?
Consumer Affairs Victoria brought legal action against Ms Gibson for allegedly breaking Australian consumer law.
And in September 2017, she was fined $410,000 (Aus) (£214,000) for making false claims about her donations to charity.
In both 2020 and 2021, her home was raided to recoup unpaid fines. A year earlier, she was reported to have been spotted at Melbourne airport having returned from an $8,000 (£4,000) safari trip.
A video emerged after the first house raid, in which the former blogger claimed she had been adopted by the Ethiopian community in Melbourne.
However, this claim was later disputed by president of the Australian Oromo Community Association in Victoria, Tarekegn Chimdia.
She continues to live in the Melbourne area.
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