Australian wellness blogger, Belle Gibson, who built an online community and sold a recipe book off the back of claims she cured terminal brain cancer through diet and lifestyle changes alone, has admitted she never had the disease.
In an interview with
Australian Women’s Weekly, Gibson said: “None of it’s true.”
Early in March, the supposed wellness guru’s lie began to unravel when it was revealed she never donated thousands of dollars to charity, which had been promised from the proceeds of her successful mobile phone app, website and recipe book.
Later that month, Gibson said she had been “wrongly” diagnosed by a German magnetic therapist with cancers she claimed to have in her blood, spleen, uterus and liver – however she maintained her terminal brain cancer was real.
Gibson refused to show journalists medical records or any proof to back her claims that, by avoiding conventional medicine, her brain cancer had been stymied.
The wellness empire Gibson built for herself began to crumble and she experienced a backlash on social media from followers who said they felt betrayed.
Many criticised Gibson for putting cancer sufferers in danger by
suggesting dietary approaches alone could successfully treat them, according to
The Guardian.
Consumer Affairs Victoria is now investigating Gibson, while Penguin has ceased publishing her recipe book and the Apple store no longer offers her app for download.
News Ltd, which appears to have obtained a full copy of the
Australian Women’s Weekly interview ahead of publication, reports Gibson fails to explain fully why she lied, saying only that she had a difficult childhood.
“I don’t want forgiveness,” says Gibson, “I think [telling the truth about not having cancer] was the responsible thing to do. Above anything, I would like people to say, ‘OK, she’s human’.”
The Guardian alleges that Gibson started making false illness claims in 2009, when she purported – on an internet forum – to have undergone multiple heart surgeries and to have died on the operating table.
