Hold on to your kombucha, folks!
Netflix just dropped “Apple Cider Vinegar,” and it’s a doozy.
This series, which premiered on February 6th, isn’t just another binge-worthy drama; it’s a deep dive into the murky world of wellness gurus and the lies they sometimes sell.
Based on true events, it follows a wellness influencer who fakes being terminally ill.
Sound familiar?
It should.
We’re talking about Belle Gibson, the Australian wellness entrepreneur who convinced thousands she had brain cancer that she was treating with organic food and a whole lot of Instagrammable meals.
A decade ago, her empire crumbled when it was revealed… she never had cancer at all.
Cue the collective gasp heard ‘round the world.
Gibson was later convicted of misleading and deceptive conduct and slapped with a hefty fine.
Her cookbook, “The Whole Pantry,” was yanked from shelves faster than you can say “green smoothie.”
So, what’s “Apple Cider Vinegar” all about?
Let’s spill the tea.
The Making of a Faker: Kaitlyn Dever as Belle
To bring this twisted tale to life, showrunner Samantha Strauss turned to “The Woman Who Fooled The World: The True Story of Fake Wellness Guru Belle Gibson,” a nonfiction book by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano.
Kaitlyn Dever, known for her roles in “Booksmart” and “Unbelievable,” steps into the shoes of Belle, capturing the charm and manipulation that defined Gibson’s rise and fall.
Strauss sees the show as a cautionary tale, a PSA about the scammers lurking in the wellness industry.
It’s a timely reminder, considering how antivax sentiments and bogus COVID treatments ran rampant during the pandemic.
The series also wants to spark a conversation about why some patients distrust doctors and put their faith in alternative therapies and figures like Gibson.
She adds, “There is absolutely a place for community and yoga and meditation.
Drink your juice!” But, she emphasizes, “Listening to scientists and doctors doesn’t do us any disservice.”
Belle Gibson’s Rise to Insta-Fame
The real Belle Gibson joined Instagram in 2013 with the username Healing Belle, right as the platform was taking off.
Her aesthetically pleasing posts about being a terminal brain cancer patient healing herself naturally went viral like wildfire.
Think organic meals, colorful juices, and the promise of hope.
That same year, she launched a recipe app called “The Whole Pantry,” and it shot to the top of the Apple app store within a month.
In less than two years, Gibson raked in half a million dollars from her brand.
A cookbook followed in 2014, further solidifying her image as a wellness guru.
But it wasn’t just about the recipes.
Followers would ask for advice on how to treat their conditions, and she’d suggest foods or treatments that could help them heal.
Yikes.
The show’s title is even a nod to the wellness world’s obsession with apple cider vinegar as a cure-all, though it wasn’t necessarily Gibson’s go-to remedy.
Milla: Inspiration or Instigation?
“Apple Cider Vinegar” introduces Milla, a character who’s also battling cancer through food and inspires Belle to craft her elaborate lie.
Milla is inspired by several wellness gurus, but primarily by Jess Ainscough, a teen magazine editor who went viral for documenting how she stayed in remission from cancer without traditional treatments.
Even Ainscough’s mother followed her daughter’s guidance when she was diagnosed with cancer, but sadly passed away in 2013.
Ainscough herself died in 2015 at the young age of 29.
Gibson and Ainscough were in the same wellness circles, but not friends.
In fact, in the show, Milla is depicted trying to expose Gibson as a fraud, though that didn’t happen in real life.
According to Donelly, “Jess really had very little to do with Belle Gibson.”
Yet, the show portrays Gibson showing up at Ainscough’s funeral, sobbing hysterically and even crying on Ainscough’s fiancé’s shoulder.
This happened right after Donelly and Toscano sent her 21 questions for their exposé, suggesting her tears might have been about more than just the end of Jess’s life.
The Unraveling: How the Lie Was Exposed
Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, the investigative journalists at *The Age* newspaper, received a tip from someone who knew Gibson and doubted her cancer claims.
Throughout “Apple Cider Vinegar,” journalists are hot on Belle’s trail.
In real life, their tipster was a friend of Gibson’s named Chanelle, who had tried to stage an intervention.
Chanelle grew suspicious when Gibson had a seizure at her son’s birthday party but refused to call an ambulance or go to the hospital.
Plus, Chanelle had spent two days cooking meals for a family with a child who had brain cancer, but Belle never delivered them, and Chanelle found them stacked in her freezer.
The red flags were waving high.
What really set things off was that Gibson never *looked* sick, and her jet-setting lifestyle online didn’t match her supposed diagnosis.
Oncologists who reviewed Gibson’s posts noted that her description of how her cancer spread simply wasn’t medically accurate.
But they needed more.
In March 2015, Donelly and Toscano broke the news that Gibson had promised to raise money for five charities but hadn’t donated a dime.
Then they published their doubts about her cancer.
It all came crashing down.
Three months later, she admitted to *The Australian Women’s Weekly* that she lied.
Why, Belle, Why?
The Million-Dollar Question
Why did Belle Gibson pretend to have cancer?
That’s the million-dollar question that everyone’s been asking for years.
Toscano says Gibson had been “peddling stories of miraculous medical survival” since she was a child.
Childhood friends recalled her talking about heart surgery and claiming she once died and had to be resuscitated.
These bogus medical dramas garnered sympathy and attention.
Strauss intentionally avoided portraying her as having a specific mental health illness because it’s never been confirmed.
Donelly believes the seizure at her son’s birthday party was an attention-seeking move to garner sympathy as doubts grew within her inner circle.
She offered hope to vulnerable people, wrapped in a pretty Instagram bow with beautiful photos and nice recipes, says Donelly.
That’s what made it so popular—and so damaging.
The journalists hope viewers will think twice when they see too-good-to-be-true claims of cancer survival or seemingly miraculous therapies that are supposed to replace conventional medical treatments.
“The real danger,” Toscano says, “is that some of the people peddling these remedies are promoting them as something that you should do *instead* of chemotherapy, radiotherapy or conventional treatments.”
The Fiction and the Facts
Showrunner Samantha Strauss plays with Gibson’s shaky relationship with truth in how she tells the story.
The timeline jumps around, blending reported facts with fictionalized sequences.
Each episode even has a different disclaimer, like “This is a true-ish story based on a lie.”
Like other scammer TV dramas like “Inventing Anna” and “The Dropout,” “Apple Cider Vinegar” explores how “fake it til you make it” can become a dangerous ideology.
Gibson, like Anna Delvey and Elizabeth Holmes, embodies the dark side of hustle culture.
Gibson was one of the first in a new wave of scammers using social media and apps to deceive people.
But faking a terminal illness to exploit vulnerable people for profit and fame?
That’s a whole other level of cruel.
The show also highlights the stories of two other women.
Milla Blake is a journalist with epithelioid sarcoma, based on Jessica Ainscough, who documented her cancer journey on her website, Wellness Warrior.
And then there’s Lucy, a fictional character representing the countless followers who may have stopped conventional treatments in favor of Gibson’s suggestions.
It’s easy to see how the picture-perfect world of flower crowns and wellness retreats could be alluring, but the series exposes the sickness beneath the surface.
Where is Belle Gibson Now?
The Unanswered Questions
The series doesn’t give the typical “what happened next?” postscript.
Instead, Devers’ Gibson interrupts and tells viewers, “You know what?
You can Google it.” A cop-out?
Maybe.
But isn’t that where all this trouble started?
Gibson was found guilty of five breaches of consumer law in 2017 and ordered to repay A$410,000.
But she hasn’t paid.
Her home has been raided multiple times, and the fines now amount to over A$500,000.
The show, nor her previous interviews, gets to the bottom of why she did it.
Was it a troubled childhood?
A thirst for fame?
Or purely a moneymaking scheme?
Some might attribute Gibson’s claims to Munchausen syndrome or Munchausen by Internet (MBI), where someone joins an online support group for people with a serious illness and then claims to have the illness themselves.
As journalist Toscano said in 2017, “There have always been snake-oil salespeople.
But where this story differs is her explosion to success, and her incredible reach was made possible by a number of intensely modern forces.”
A Cautionary Tale for the Digital Age
Gibson’s story is a perfect storm involving internet culture, a health and wellness community seeking to find the good in everyone, and a con artist who may have suffered with her own delusions.
How could she have possibly believed the truth wouldn’t come out in the end?
Gibson has rarely been seen in public since the scandal.
In 2020, she claimed to be part of the Oromo community, an Ethiopian ethnic group, and said she was now called Sabontu.
A reporter confronted her in February 2024, asking why she hadn’t paid her fine.
“Have some humanity,” she replied.
“I haven’t paid things because I can’t afford to.”
“Apple Cider Vinegar” is a vital reminder that the internet is full of people with carefully constructed identities, both real and fake.
So, what’s the only healthy course of action?
Approach it all with a healthy dose of skepticism.
You can stream Apple Cider Vinegar on Netflix now.
What do you think?
Will “Apple Cider Vinegar” make you think twice before trusting the next wellness guru you see online?
It certainly should.
Decoding the “Apple Cider Vinegar” Series: Your Burning Questions Answered
Is “Apple Cider Vinegar” based on a true story?
Yes, the Netflix series “Apple Cider Vinegar” is inspired by the real-life story of Belle Gibson, an Australian wellness entrepreneur who faked having terminal cancer.
Who plays Belle Gibson in the series?
Kaitlyn Dever, known for her roles in “Booksmart” and “Unbelievable,” portrays Belle Gibson in “Apple Cider Vinegar.”
What was Belle Gibson known for before her deception was revealed?
Belle Gibson gained fame for her wellness app, “The Whole Pantry,” and cookbook, where she claimed to be healing herself naturally from brain cancer.
What happened to Belle Gibson after her lies were exposed?
Belle Gibson was found guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct and ordered to pay a hefty fine, which she has yet to fully pay.
Where can I watch “Apple Cider Vinegar”?
You can stream “Apple Cider Vinegar” on Netflix.
The Lasting Impact of Deception: Lessons from “Apple Cider Vinegar”
Netflix’s “Apple Cider Vinegar” serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of unchecked information and the allure of wellness scams in the digital age.
The series not only retells the captivating and disturbing story of Belle Gibson but also prompts viewers to critically evaluate the sources they trust and the promises they believe.
Ultimately, it highlights the importance of skepticism and informed decision-making in navigating the complex landscape of online health information.
Navigating the World of Wellness: Practical Steps for Informed Consumption
- Do Your Research: Always verify claims from wellness gurus with reputable sources, such as medical professionals and scientific studies.
- Be Skeptical of Miracle Cures: If something sounds too good to be true, it likely is.
Be wary of products or treatments that promise miraculous results or replace conventional medical care. - Consult Healthcare Professionals: Seek advice from qualified doctors and healthcare providers before making any significant changes to your health regimen.
- Report Suspicious Activity: If you encounter a potential scam or misleading health information online, report it to the appropriate authorities or platforms.
