A shocking new TV show will soon be hitting Netflix about a woman who tricked people into believing she had cancer—and it's based on a true story.
The streaming giant has recently released a promo video for its upcoming series Apple Cider Vinegar, which stars Kaitlyn Dever as Belle Gibson, a former social media influencer and "wellness guru" from Australia. She first caught public attention after claiming she cured herself of terminal cancer by rejecting conventional medicine in favor of a healthy diet and lifestyle.
Her health battle, which included her claiming to have been worn down by months of chemotherapy and radiation, was documented on a blog and her Instagram account @healing_belle. This became the basis for a successful book and app, featuring lifestyle advice and healthy recipes.
Gibson's story sounds like the storyline of an emotional movie—or maybe, a Netflix show. However, everything came crashing down in 2015 when Gibson was exposed as a fraud. It was revealed that she never had cancer and had failed to donate the proceeds from her app to charity, as promised.
While Apple Cider Vinegar doesn't have a release date as of yet, it is inspired by Gibson's story. Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Netflix for comment on Wednesday.
"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," the bio for the new show reads.
"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 six-episode limited series was created by award-winning Australian writer Samantha Strauss (Nine Perfect Strangers, The End, Dance Academy), who was living in Melbourne at the height of Gibson's fame.
The series is inspired by the book The Woman Who Fooled the World by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, who helped uncover the details of Gibson's deception.
What Happened to Belle Gibson and Where Is She Now?
Eventually, Gibson's once-thriving wellness empire began to crumble under scrutiny. She had pledged to donate thousands of dollars from her business to charity, but in March 2014, an investigation by Fairfax Media revealed that many of these donations had not been made. As public outrage grew, Gibson's credibility was called into question, and demands for answers intensified.
In April 2015, The Australian Women's Weekly published an explosive interview in which Gibson confessed that she had fabricated her claims about having terminal cancer. "No... None of it's true," she admitted, adding, "I don't want forgiveness. I just think [speaking out] was the responsible thing to do."
She also expressed a desire to move forward, stating: "Above anything, I would like people to say, 'OK, she's human. She's obviously had a big life. She's respectfully come to the table and said what she's needed to say, and now it's time for her to grow and heal'."
Legal repercussions followed. On May 6, 2016, Consumer Affairs Victoria initiated legal proceedings against Gibson and her company for making false claims about her health and the promised charitable donations. By March 2017, the Federal Court of Australia ruled against her, stating she had no reasonable basis to claim she had cancer. She was fined $265,844 (AUD $410,000).
Despite court orders, Gibson failed to pay up, with her fines ballooning to over half a million dollars due to interest and fees. Her home was raided twice, in January 2020 and May 2021, to seize assets and recover unpaid fines.
After she attended court, Gibson did not show her face publicly for months. But in January 2020, she had reinvented herself as "Sabontu," an adopted member of Melbourne's Oromo community, an Ethiopian diaspora group. She began attending community events, claiming to have been embraced by the Oromo people and describing Ethiopia as "back home." However, the community quickly distanced itself from her.
The president of the Australian Oromo Community Association in Victoria, Tarekegn Chimdi, accused Gibson of exploiting the community's goodwill and shared that she wasn't a registered volunteer. During an interview with Women's Weekly, he said that after reporters told him who Gibson was, he asked her to stop attending community events.
"She is exploiting the good heart of the people in our community," he said. "People are not questioning when people are approaching them [whether] this is a good person. They did not know what evil she was carrying."
At the time of writing, Gibson's social media accounts are no longer visible online, and no recent reports of her whereabouts have surfaced.
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