The Australian woman found herself back in the spotlight early this year when Netflix turned her life story into a series. She has been in the news for making false claims, and her brother has said she belongs in jail.

Belle Gibson became widely known for tricking millions by saying she had a deadly illness that she healed using natural treatments and clean living. Later, she admitted those claims were not true and ended up dealing with the legal ramifications.

Belle’s story is now a Netflix show called “Apple Cider Vinegar,” which came out on February 6, 2025. The six-part series shows how she fooled people into thinking she had cured her brain cancer with healthy eating and natural treatments.

She said doctors found a brain tumor in 2009 and gave her only six weeks to live. Belle also claimed chemotherapy made her feel worse, so she turned to clean eating and alternative methods instead.

In 2013, she launched an app called “The Whole Pantry,” which became very popular. It was downloaded 200,000 times in just one month. She also wrote a book with the same name, sharing how she supposedly healed herself with a sugar- and gluten-free diet and a wellness lifestyle.

Her stories didn’t stop there. Belle told people she had several heart surgeries, died for a short time during one, and even had a stroke. Later, she said the cancer had spread to other parts of her body, like her blood, spleen, uterus, and liver.

As time went on, her claims grew even more emotional and personal. Belle, who has a son named Oliver, once said in an interview:

“I am hurting.”

The mother of one shared how deeply affected she felt by what she described as another heartbreaking diagnosis. She noted that it struck harder than the first:

“I sat for hours crying and crying and crying. And I said to [a friend at the time], ‘How do you say goodbye to your own child?'”

In another candid interview, Belle divulged that two months into chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she collapsed on a hospital lawn in Melbourne, Australia.

When she came to, she claimed she had a realization — if she truly had only a few weeks left, she didn’t want to spend them that way.

According to the former influence, her doctors thought she had lost her mind when she decided to stop regular treatment and instead turn to natural methods like herbalism and craniosacral therapy. Still, she felt hopeful. She kept up her meditation and cared for herself with wholefoods.

These shocking claims didn’t just affect strangers online — they also raised doubts among those closest to her. One of Belle’s former friends, Chanelle McAuliffe, once told ITV she began to question the truth behind her illness.

McAuliffe recalled that Belle had a seizure but got better very quickly after someone mentioned calling an ambulance. As more questions came to light, Belle eventually faced them directly. When asked in a 2015 interview if she ever had cancer, she admitted:

“No. None of it’s true.”

After spending over five years telling the world she was terminally ill, the now-33-year-old, who once claimed to be adopted by the Ethiopian community in Melbourne, shared how facing reality felt.

“It’s just very scary, to be honest,” she said. “Because you start to doubt the crux of things that make up who you are. You know, I’m blonde and I’m tall, and I’ve got hazel eyes and I’ve got cancer. And all of a sudden, you take away some of those high-level things and it’s really daunting.”

Not long after her confession, real-world consequences began to follow. In 2016, legal pressure mounted when Consumer Affairs Victoria moved to take action against Belle for possibly breaking Australian consumer law.

The agency said it had thoroughly examined her actions and sought permission from the Federal Court to move forward. The author had gained fame through her wellness brand, her successful app and cookbook.

Belle had pledged that some of the profits would go to charity. However, reports later claimed the donations were never made. As public trust unraveled and official scrutiny tightened, her actions finally faced judgment in court.

In 2017, she was ordered to pay $410,000 in fines after the Federal Court in Melbourne ruled that she had misled the public about her cancer diagnosis. Her claims, used to build a health brand and gain online fame, were found to be deceptive.

She had earned $420,000 through her wellness image, but the court determined she had broken consumer law five times. Penalties included $90,000 for not donating money from The Whole Pantry app as promised, $50,000 tied to the app’s launch, and $30,000 from a 2014 Mother’s Day event.

An additional $90,000 was for failing to hand over other business income, and the largest fine — $150,000 — was for not giving one week’s app earnings to the family of Joshua Schwarz, a boy with an inoperable brain tumor. Justice Debbie Mortimer called this failure the “most serious” of the offenses.

Despite the court ruling and growing public outrage, Belle stayed silent toward those she misled — leaving her family to carry the weight of her actions. Her older brother, Nick Gibson, has since spoken out. As kids, the siblings were close. He remembered Belle as calm and caring, adding:

“She was my best buddy growing up. We got on so well everyone thought we were twins.”

Decades later, the bond they once shared has turned into disbelief. Nick is stunned by the person his sister has become. What troubles him most is her lack of remorse. While Belle built her wellness career on a lie, her sibling wishes he could say sorry to the people she deceived — something she never did.

Nick’s heartbreak runs deeper than embarrassment — it’s rooted in the pain Belle caused to people who were already suffering. He said he felt upset by what she did to the families, explaining:

“None of them deserved it.

He said the people Belle deceived were genuinely facing serious health issues, while she was pretending to have cancer, acting as if she could heal herself, and playing doctor. According to him, those she misled were truly battling cancer.

Though it pained him to say it, Nick didn’t hide how serious he believes the consequences should be, “I shouldn’t be saying this because I’m her brother but what she did was nasty. Some prison time would give her a wake-up call. The things she’s done… I don’t want my kids to be around that.”

Nick’s words painted a raw picture of disappointment, but public reaction wasn’t the only lens through which Belle’s story was viewed — Netflix offered another.

In the final moments of “Apple Cider Vinegar,” Belle is shown in a more personal light. According to series creator Samantha Strauss, the character’s honesty is shaped by her own view of the truth.

“She’s saying, ‘I really hope I can be well,'” Strauss explained, adding, “Does Belle think she’s a scammer? I think everyone is the hero of their own story. No one sees themselves as the bad guy.”

The closing scene, where Belle is by the pool with her son and her partner Clive (Ashley Zukerman), suggests a softer side. Both Strauss and actress Kaitlyn Dever, who played Belle, believed the ending hinted at her trying to do better.

“She wants to give love to her son. At her core, Belle really does want to be a good mom,” said Dever. She described the moment as layered — “twisted,” full of sadness, and emotionally heavy. For them, ending the show that way carried deep meaning.

That final scene may have carried emotional weight, but the creators indicated there was more behind Belle’s actions than what appeared on the surface.

Strauss and Dever agreed that Belle repeated her cancer story so often, she eventually lost sight of its falsehood. Strauss explained:

“You tell a lie enough times, you perhaps believe it. It becomes your own truth. We probably do that all the time, every day.”

Dever pointed to Belle’s troubled past as a possible reason for her fabrications. In the series, Belle is shown running away from home at the age of 12 and struggling with an uneasy relationship with her mother, Natalie. The character of Natalie, played by Essie Davis, is also portrayed as someone who has a difficult time telling the truth.

Belle’s rise and fall became one of the most public cases of health-related deception in recent years. Her false claims about curing cancer brought legal action, financial penalties, and widespread backlash.

Despite admitting she never had cancer, she has not publicly apologized to those affected. Her story has since been adapted into a Netflix series, sparking renewed interest and debate. Meanwhile, voices like her brother’s continue to call for accountability.