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to an all-new

0:37

episode of serialously

0:57

Hey everybody, welcome back to an all-new

0:59

episode of Serialously with me Annie Elise.

1:01

I hope you guys are having a

1:03

good start to your day because we

1:06

have got a lot to talk about

1:08

today. I have been like reeling, wanting

1:10

to talk about this case with you

1:13

guys. I have been researching, ad nauseam,

1:15

so many details, and there's so much

1:17

to talk about. Before we get into

1:19

that, if you are a brand new

1:22

listener and you have never checked out

1:24

this podcast, you know, and this is

1:26

your first time listening, let me give

1:28

you a little breakdown of what it is

1:31

we do here. with my best friend or

1:33

my sister over a cocktail or coffee and

1:35

just talk through these things together, do deep

1:37

dives, talk about the rabbit holes, talk about

1:40

what's on social media, theories, all of those

1:42

different things and just break it down in

1:44

less of a clinical way than other podcasts

1:46

do or other documentaries do or shows to

1:49

it really feels digestible and like you're talking

1:51

with a friend. So if this is your

1:53

first time listening to an episode and you

1:55

enjoy it by the end of this please

1:57

follow the you don't miss future episodes. in

2:00

any event and listening to today's

2:02

episode. Now as I said, ever

2:04

since I watched this show on

2:06

Netflix I have been wanting to

2:08

do the deep dive. I've talked

2:11

about it a little bit so

2:13

you might know where I'm going

2:15

with it, but it's apple cider

2:17

vinegar and all things Bell Gibson.

2:19

Bell, Bell, Bell, please. I mean

2:22

either you're interested in getting to

2:24

the bottom of this and presenting

2:26

the facts as they are the

2:28

facts. or you're not? Yes, Bal

2:30

was very convincing in her conviction

2:33

of being sick and having an

2:35

illness. Stay strong in your identity

2:37

and your safu, look to your

2:39

community and make decisions like that

2:41

which Gada have taught us, look

2:43

to the Jasa to lead us

2:46

forward. Just every answer she was

2:48

giving me was just confirming my

2:50

gut instinct that... She was lying?

2:52

Now if you've been on Netflix lately,

2:54

you might have seen apple cider vinegar

2:56

already, which is the show about Bell,

2:59

and it's this woman who really built

3:01

her empire entirely on health, wellness, and

3:03

this massive, massive lie. Now there is

3:05

some truth to the show, but it's

3:07

also a dramatization. So as we always

3:10

talk about, there's a lot more to

3:12

the story. And I don't know, for

3:14

whatever reason it is, documentary, sometimes... whether

3:16

it's for legal reasons or because they

3:18

have to fit a lot in in

3:21

a short amount of time, they don't

3:23

go into all of the details. And

3:25

if you're anything like me, anytime I'm

3:27

watching a date line, a documentary, a

3:29

series, I'm on my phone, I'm googling

3:32

it, I'm looking on Reddit, I'm looking

3:34

at their social media because I want

3:36

to know everything, everything below the line.

3:38

And I swear, after all this research,

3:40

I feel like I know Belle Gibson,

3:43

better than she probably knows herself, I

3:45

don't know. It's not probably not healthy.

3:47

I'm probably not well. But I just

3:49

like to know every single detail. So

3:51

as I said, some of it was

3:54

covered in Appleside or Vinegar. There also

3:56

has been a new documentary that came

3:58

out that was called The Search for

4:00

Instagram's worst con artist. touched on it

4:02

a little bit, but it mostly included

4:05

the infamous 60 Minutes interview with her

4:07

and kind of regurgitated certain details. It

4:09

really didn't do a deep dive. So

4:11

I'm here to do the deep dive. I'm

4:13

here to go over all of it. Also

4:15

to go through what's fact, what's fiction, what

4:17

got left out. And the biggest question,

4:20

who the hell is the real

4:22

Bell Gibson, please stand up. Belle

4:24

wasn't just another influencer. She was

4:26

the face of the early Instagram

4:28

wellness movement. She was the poster

4:30

child for clean eating, for alternative

4:32

healing, and most shockingly, the idea

4:35

that nutrition alone had cured her

4:37

terminal cancer. So at the height

4:39

of her fame, Belle Gibson was

4:41

like everywhere. She was praised as

4:43

this wellness guru, this best-selling author.

4:45

She was a living testament to

4:48

the power of clean eating. But

4:50

then... As it so often does,

4:52

it all came crashing down. This

4:54

woman who claimed to have healed

4:56

herself through diet and lifestyle had

4:58

in fact... fabricated everything. The whole

5:01

thing was a lie. There was

5:03

no cancer, there was no miraculous

5:05

recovery, it was just a huge

5:07

web of lies, and lies that

5:09

were inspired by the truth, but

5:11

somebody else's truth. So before Bell

5:14

became the face of the wellness

5:16

movement, before the cookbook deals, before

5:18

the social media fame, she was

5:20

just Annabelle Natalie Gibson. She was

5:22

born on October 8th, 1991, in

5:24

Losestown, Tasmania, Australia. Now Bell's childhood,

5:26

I gotta be honest, it's somewhat

5:28

of a mystery and a lot

5:30

of details do still remain unknown

5:32

and her early years largely are

5:34

undocumented as well. What we do

5:36

know comes mostly from her own

5:38

words, but... What we know about

5:40

that and from her own words,

5:42

it paints kind of this picture

5:44

of just instability and constant chaos.

5:46

Belle grew up in Brisbane, Australia,

5:49

and she claimed that her father was

5:51

absent for most of her life, leaving

5:53

her mother Natalie to really shoulder the

5:55

weight of their family's challenges, which there

5:57

were a lot of them. And Belle

5:59

has described childhood where she herself really

6:01

acted as a caretaker from a remarkably

6:03

young age, starting at just five years

6:06

old. In Bell's version of events, she

6:08

was the one who was holding everything

6:10

together, the glue of the family, helping

6:12

care for her mother who suffered from

6:14

MS. She cared for her younger brother

6:16

who was autistic. She was the matriarch

6:18

of the family. They also didn't have

6:20

a lot of money. And her mom

6:23

was also always apparently dating questionable people.

6:25

So because of that, Belle said, you

6:27

know, I really had to step into

6:29

this role. I had to take care

6:31

of my mother, my, you know, unwell

6:33

brother. I had to do everything. We

6:35

didn't have a lot of money. I

6:37

had to figure things out at just

6:40

such a young age. Like, I'm the

6:42

one who carried that weight on my

6:44

shoulders. And by the time Belle reached

6:46

elementary school, she pretty much reached elementary

6:48

school, she pretty much claimed that she

6:50

was essentially a mini adults. that she

6:52

was navigating life with responsibilities that would

6:54

be overwhelming to actual grownups, to real

6:57

adults. She was in charge of everything

6:59

from helping her mother move around to

7:01

managing her brother's behaviors, helping him with

7:03

school, getting dinner on the table, you

7:05

name it. On top of that, she

7:07

was also making her own lunches. She

7:09

was cleaning the house, doing the grocery

7:11

shopping. She was arranging medical appointments for

7:14

both her mom and her brother. She

7:16

even claimed that she was a huge

7:18

advocate for her brother, asking doctors to

7:20

focus on his diet and to focus

7:22

on holistic methods of healing, all to

7:24

help his autism. Now I don't know

7:26

how she did this at just five

7:28

years old, long before her peers even

7:30

learned how to, you know, write a

7:33

bike without training wheels or even tie

7:35

their shoes, but she claimed that she

7:37

did it. And she says that because

7:39

of it, she was overwhelmed. So Belle

7:41

left her family home at the age

7:43

of 12 years old. She moved around

7:45

a lot, crashing on friends' couches, staying

7:47

with neighbors, never truly having a stable

7:50

place to call home. Now, after a

7:52

brief stint in a local high school,

7:54

she ended up dropping out at around

7:56

the ninth grade. She later claimed that

7:58

she didn't drop out of school, though,

8:00

that she just started to homeschool herself,

8:02

but there was really not a whole

8:04

lot of evidence to back that up.

8:07

Then, in late 2008, when she was

8:09

17 years old, she decided to make

8:11

a pretty move. She packed her bags

8:13

and she headed to the complete opposite

8:15

side of Australia, 45 hours away from

8:17

the place that she grew up, now

8:19

in the city of Perth. There she

8:21

was all alone. She didn't have any

8:24

family, she didn't have any friends, she

8:26

didn't have a solid plan for how

8:28

she was going to get by, but

8:30

she made it happen. And Belle had,

8:32

I will say, this naturally charming personality.

8:34

She was friendly. She had a way

8:36

of just making people feel seen and

8:38

feel validated. She used that charisma too

8:41

to her advantage. She even landed a

8:43

job at a call center for a

8:45

private insurance company when she was young

8:47

and trying to like make her way

8:49

now in Perth. And she did well

8:51

for herself. She succeeded in her position

8:53

and she started befriending all of her

8:55

co-workers, really using that charm, that wit,

8:58

almost that sob story too of her

9:00

childhood to lure people in. And in

9:02

her free time, Belle became heavily involved

9:04

in the local skateboarding community. It isn't

9:06

clear whether this was something that she

9:08

was always interested in, if that was

9:10

something she liked to do and you

9:12

know skate or whether she ever actually

9:15

even skated herself or just hung out

9:17

with people who did it. But the

9:19

people involved in that community became her

9:21

main core group of friends. for Belle

9:23

her interest in skateboarding followed her into

9:25

her online world, her new orbit, her

9:27

online persona. She even became an active

9:29

member of the website skateboard.com where she

9:32

carefully just curated and crafted this whole

9:34

new rebellious identity. Up until then, Belle

9:36

was your typical normal-looking teenager. She had

9:38

light eyes, blonde hair, but then she

9:40

decided she needed to make a change.

9:42

She died her hair black, she got

9:44

piercing, she also got multiple tattoos, and

9:46

it was almost like she wanted to

9:49

become this whole new person and leave

9:51

her previous life just completely behind her.

9:53

Now on this skateboarding form, Belle found

9:55

a space where she felt like she

9:57

could finally be whoever she wanted to

9:59

be. She filled her posts with profanity,

10:01

with crude humor, and would have these

10:03

very candid discussions about partying and dating,

10:05

just fully immersing herself in this online...

10:08

But between jokes, she would also start

10:10

sharing a little bit more about her

10:12

vulnerability, about personal things regarding herself. Things

10:14

like how she dreamed about going to

10:16

school one day to study marketing and

10:18

business, or how she was drawn to

10:20

the idea of building something for herself,

10:22

crafting a brand, and really making an

10:25

impact. And it was almost like that

10:27

form message board situation was like her

10:29

first testing ground. A place where she

10:31

could experiment with different personas, gauge reactions,

10:33

and learn how to shape a story

10:35

that people would really want to follow.

10:37

She basically learned how to capture the

10:39

attention and make people care about her.

10:42

So this form was almost like an

10:44

early version of social media for her.

10:46

And as she spent more time on

10:48

the site, her posts grew increasingly personal.

10:50

She started sharing more details about her

10:52

life and she just had this level

10:54

of openness that made this form feel

10:56

less like an online message board and

10:59

more like a personal blog. Then, by

11:01

May 2009, her post took a pretty

11:03

drastic turn. Pretty dramatic turn, I should

11:05

say. Because what started as just casual

11:07

discussions about skateboarding, nightlife, partying, things like

11:09

that, they all shifted to something much

11:11

more serious. Because Belle started posting about

11:13

some pretty alarming health issues, claiming she

11:16

had suffered a stroke. She was now

11:18

dealing with severe heart problems and problems

11:20

that required her to have multiple surgeries.

11:22

And Belle's posts did not go unnoticed.

11:24

I mean... the more that she shared

11:26

about her health struggles, the more people

11:28

on this form started paying attention to

11:30

her. Many of them had formed genuine

11:33

bonds with her too, and they truly

11:35

cared about what she was going through.

11:37

Then, on May 5th, her post took

11:39

a particularly alarming turn. She claimed that

11:41

she had to be rushed into emergency

11:43

surgery. Her post was brief, but it

11:45

was pretty dramatic, and this caused a

11:47

flood of responses from all these worried

11:50

members and friends of hers. The post

11:52

read... I have flew it around my

11:54

heart that needed to be drained, or

11:56

else my heart would have stopped pumping

11:58

blood, and I would have died. I

12:00

need to get a valve replaced, but

12:02

I can't afford it yet. So everybody

12:04

was panicked, everybody was worried. But then,

12:07

just two weeks later, Belle escalated her

12:09

story. She now told people on this

12:11

form that she was heading back to

12:13

the hospital, this time for her third

12:16

heart surgery. Now this announcement started to

12:18

raise some eyebrows, because didn't she just

12:20

say that she couldn't afford surgery 15

12:22

days ago, but yet now she's going

12:25

into her third surgery? How was this

12:27

tracking? How was she affording multiple surgeries

12:29

in such a short time? But many

12:31

people didn't really question it. They kind

12:34

of set their doubts aside. They responded

12:36

with words of encouragement, with words of

12:38

concern, support, and they wanted to be

12:40

there for Bell. A day later, on

12:42

May 21, Bell returned to the forum

12:44

with an update. According to her, the

12:46

surgery had not gone as expected.

12:48

She claimed that she temporarily died

12:51

on the operating table all before

12:53

doctors miraculously revived her. Her post

12:55

read... The doctor comes in and tells

12:57

me that the draining failed, and

12:59

I went into cardiac arrest and

13:01

I died for just under three

13:03

minutes. I have the most intense

13:05

bruising from the paddles when they

13:07

electrocuted me back to consciousness. I

13:09

went straight into a coma situation

13:11

for six hours, and I just

13:13

woke up crying for my iPhone. They're

13:16

amazing. I'm sitting up already, and

13:18

I am a miracle. And Bell's

13:20

health claims did not slow down

13:22

there. They only intensified. Eventually, she

13:24

told this form her new online

13:26

group of peers and friends. She

13:29

told them her condition was worsening.

13:31

Now she was saying that she had

13:33

a tumor on her heart and it

13:35

was time to prepare for the inevitable.

13:37

She was terminal. All

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20. Now

16:07

based on the news that Belle

16:09

had a tumor on her heart,

16:11

Belle claimed that chemotherapy was inevitable.

16:13

She was going to have to

16:15

have it no matter what, it

16:17

was the only option she really

16:19

had at that point. So to

16:21

prepare for it, she started cutting

16:23

her hair. She was bracing herself

16:25

for the day that it was

16:27

all going to fall out and

16:29

she was going to have to

16:31

shave her head. And her posts

16:33

became more frequent and more dramatic,

16:35

Belle made another life change in

16:37

July of 2009. Once again, she

16:39

packed up and she relocated, this

16:41

time to Melbourne, a city that is

16:44

known for its very vibrant art

16:46

scene, its very diverse culture, and

16:48

just a complete new place for

16:50

her. It was another fresh start

16:53

for Belle and another chance to,

16:55

quite honestly, reinvent herself. So this

16:57

tough, outspoken skater girl that was

16:59

dark hair, tattoos, piercings, that girl

17:01

just sort of started to fade

17:03

to fade away. now making room

17:06

for a different version of herself.

17:08

Instead of the girl who just

17:10

announced that she was shaving her

17:12

head for chemotherapy, she arrived now

17:14

in Melbourne with this long blonde

17:16

hair fully intact. She kind of

17:18

went into this more preppy, very

17:21

polished, even bojo-esque kind of image,

17:23

just a complete stark difference from

17:25

who she was before and who

17:27

she portrayed herself to be. And

17:29

there, Belle also settled into a new

17:31

life. She socialized, she built new relationships,

17:34

and she embraced this next chapter

17:36

of her life. And it was

17:38

during this period that she also

17:40

entered a new relationship with a

17:42

young guy named Nate Corbett, who

17:44

also soon became the father of

17:46

her child, because yes, despite all

17:48

the dire health struggles, everything that

17:50

Bell talked about online, she experienced

17:52

a very smooth and complication-free pregnancy.

17:54

And in 2010, she gave birth

17:56

to her son Oliver. And while

17:58

stepping into motherhood was... a significant

18:00

shift in her life, her relationship with

18:03

Nate was very short-lived. The two of

18:05

them were always arguing back and

18:07

forth, Nate wasn't really ready to take

18:09

on the responsibility of fatherhood or have

18:12

a child, so they ended up

18:14

parting ways soon after Oliver was born,

18:16

and they chose just to co-parent together

18:18

instead. Now by then, Bell's health took

18:21

another dramatic turn. Despite the fact

18:23

that she was seemingly okay and healthy

18:25

and well during her pregnancy, Belle's condition

18:27

started deteriorating rapidly. By this point,

18:29

she had transitioned from posting on that

18:32

skateboarding form to now posting on Facebook

18:34

and giving all of her updates

18:36

there. She also claimed that she had

18:38

been diagnosed with a stage two malignant

18:41

brain tumor. She also told her followers

18:43

that she met with a cancer

18:45

specialist who told her that she only

18:47

had four months to live. That was

18:50

it. So now she was preparing

18:52

for the end. But Belle was not

18:54

going to give up, and she really

18:56

presented herself as a fighter, determined

18:58

to defy the odds. At first, she

19:01

said that she was following conventional medical

19:03

advice, undergoing chemotherapy all in an effort

19:05

to prolong her life. However, after

19:07

just two months, she claimed that she

19:10

was getting frustrated with the lack of

19:12

progress. She wasn't seeing the results

19:14

that she wanted to see. So she

19:16

told this very moving story. that she

19:19

had passed out in front of

19:21

the Melbourne Hospital after receiving treatment, and

19:23

when she woke up, she had an

19:25

epiphany. She only had a few

19:27

weeks left to live. She wasn't going

19:30

to live them like this. So, against

19:32

her doctor's recommendations, she decided to reject

19:34

modern medicine. She declared she didn't

19:36

even trust modern medicine anymore. She didn't

19:39

trust the conventional ways and she wanted

19:41

to heal herself through alternative therapies.

19:43

So she committed to a whole food,

19:45

mostly plant-based diet, and she fully embraced

19:48

the Gerson therapy, which is a

19:50

very controversial regimen that claimed to detoxify

19:52

the body and restore health through very

19:54

strict diet changes such as juicing, nutritional

19:57

supplements, even frequent coffee enamas, which...

19:59

You heard that right, shoving coffee up

20:01

your butt and giving yourself... Annema. Now,

20:03

Gerson therapy was developed in the

20:05

1920s by a German physician named Max

20:08

Gerson. It promoted the idea that chronic

20:10

illnesses and chronic diseases, including cancer,

20:12

could all be reversed by flooding the

20:14

body with nutrients, nutrients that come from

20:17

organic fruits, from vegetables, while you're also

20:19

simultaneously eliminating toxins through relentless detoxification

20:21

methods, one of the most infamous being

20:23

those coffee enamas. And again, those are

20:26

just as it sounds, so look

20:28

it up at your own risk. But

20:30

anyway, advocates of this approach believe that

20:32

cancer is a symptom of a

20:34

quote, disease of the whole body. and

20:37

that detoxifying through diet really can reverse

20:39

the illness. So Bell said online

20:41

that this alternative regimen was working wonders,

20:44

that her cancer was rapidly disappearing, and

20:46

her story really became this testament to

20:48

the power of natural healing, just

20:50

drawing in all of these different supporters

20:53

who saw her as living proof that

20:55

it had doing an alternative path

20:57

to recovery, it was not only possible,

20:59

but it also worked. But there was

21:02

something strange about how Belle handled

21:04

her illness. While she poured her heart

21:06

out online detailing every supposed struggle, she

21:08

rarely, if ever, spoke about it with

21:11

her close friends and family. In

21:13

her personal life, cancer was not a

21:15

frequent topic of conversation. She wasn't seeking

21:17

support from those around her nor

21:19

did she even appear physically ill. Yet

21:22

on the internet, it was a completely

21:24

different story. And Belle didn't just

21:26

talk about her health online, she built

21:28

an entire online identity around it. She

21:31

even launched a blog and a public

21:33

Facebook page sharing every intimate and

21:35

painful detail of her battle with cancer.

21:37

She chronicled the ups, the downs, the

21:40

struggles of single motherhood, her commitment

21:42

to holistic healing. And I got to

21:44

say, it was a very compelling narrative.

21:46

It truly was. Here was this

21:48

young, beautiful, single mother fighting back against

21:51

terminal brain cancer with nothing but just

21:53

her sheer will and willpower and

21:55

natural remedies, juicing, eating healthy. It was

21:57

unbal... She wasn't just surviving either. She

22:00

was thriving in all of this. I

22:02

mean, it's no wonder that her

22:04

story resonated so deeply with her audience,

22:06

which at this point was just snowballing

22:09

and growing. I mean, the amount

22:11

of followers that she was getting from

22:13

sharing her story, it was massive. Now,

22:15

midst all of this, Bell also

22:17

attempted to launch an organic baby clothing

22:20

line. However, the venture did not take

22:22

off for whatever reason, but the failure

22:24

definitely did not slow her down.

22:26

Instead, I'm going to work what's already

22:29

working, and I'm going to pivot everything

22:31

and focus solely on social media.

22:33

By 2012, she created an Instagram account

22:35

under the handle healing bell. And on

22:38

this Instagram account, she curated this

22:40

space to really document every step about

22:42

her health journey. She would post pictures

22:44

of her passion for holistic health,

22:46

pictures of recipes, of food that she

22:49

was consuming, everything that she claimed was

22:51

attributed to her miraculous and amazing recovery.

22:53

And in her first post, she

22:55

wrote, I have been healing a severe

22:58

animalignant tumor cancer for the past few

23:00

years, with natural medicine, gerson therapy,

23:02

and foods. It's working for me, and

23:04

I am grateful to be here. sharing

23:07

this journey. Her message was simple,

23:09

yet it was also extremely powerful. It

23:11

was change your life one meal at

23:13

a time. That became her personal mantra

23:16

and also a slogan that just

23:18

fit perfectly into like the booming wellness

23:20

industry. Her audience exploded when this happened.

23:23

She was no longer just this

23:25

voice in the online health space. She

23:27

was now quickly becoming one of the

23:29

most influential figures in Australia's wellness

23:31

community. During this time, Bell also entered

23:34

into a relationship with Clive Rothwell. He

23:36

is an older man and also an

23:38

IT person. professional. And while the

23:40

details about their relationship are a little

23:43

fuzzy, a little unclear, Clive played a

23:45

significant role in her life. Not

23:47

only did he help care for her

23:49

son Oliver, but some believe that he

23:52

also might have assisted in building

23:54

her online presence. I mean, Belle had

23:56

no known... expertise in web development or

23:58

social media strategy, yet her brand

24:00

was growing at this like extremely rapid

24:03

pace. So it seemed like she had

24:05

to be getting help from somewhere and

24:07

this older IT professional man, I

24:09

mean... The math math math, right? It

24:12

feels like it fits. So as her

24:14

platform expanded, so did the extreme

24:16

nature of her claims. It was almost

24:18

like she had to like one up

24:21

the ante every time or one

24:23

up the ante up the ante every

24:25

time to where it was like, not

24:27

that she was plateauing, but she wanted

24:30

to keep the growth happening. So

24:32

she didn't just talk about her diet

24:34

anymore. She also started weaving in a

24:36

very complex narrative about her health.

24:38

She claimed it to have seizures, brain

24:41

swelling, difficulty walking, that she suffered from

24:43

vision and memory problems, and at

24:45

one point she even claimed that she

24:47

had a ringworm, but that she decided

24:50

to drink apple cider vinegar to help

24:52

cure it. And almost immediately she

24:54

said this remedy, it was like she

24:56

unlocked some piece of genius within her

24:59

because when she drank the apple

25:01

cider vinegar this worm crawled out of

25:03

her stomach into her mouth and she

25:05

pulled it out that's not how

25:07

it works that's not how it works

25:10

and I know that's totally disgusting but

25:12

like I said it's also super

25:14

misguided because ringworm isn't actually caused by

25:16

a physical worm it's a fungus but

25:19

still she went on she also claimed

25:21

to have suffered a stroke and

25:23

she attributed that to a getting the

25:25

cervical cancer vaccine And this just drew

25:28

in more and more people, people

25:30

who truly distrusted mainstream medicine. They were

25:32

looking for people who felt the same

25:34

and a place to validate their

25:36

skepticism and also validate that there is

25:39

a natural way of healing. So Belle

25:41

had positioned herself as this polarizing yet

25:43

very compelling figure. She wasn't just

25:45

some influencer peddling wellness tips. She was

25:48

somebody who lived through it, healed herself

25:50

after being told she only had

25:52

four months to live. Now she had

25:54

the answers that the doctors didn't. So

25:57

as her online presence exploded, Belle

25:59

realized she now had the opportunity. to

26:01

do more than just blog about her

26:04

experiences. She wanted to turn her platform

26:06

into something tangible, something that would

26:08

truly solidify her influence in the health

26:10

and wellness space. So by 2013, she

26:13

came up with the idea for

26:15

the whole pantry. The whole pantry is

26:17

a mobile app and it would

26:19

serve as her hub for her

26:21

entire health philosophy. The recipes, the

26:24

documenting, helping others, you name it.

26:26

It wasn't just about documenting her

26:28

journey anymore. It was about sharing

26:30

the tools that had supposedly really

26:33

saved her life. Belle Gibson is

26:35

part of a new breed of

26:37

entrepreneurs. She is an eco-prener. You

26:39

taste like mango. Belle launched the

26:41

whole pantry at last year. It's

26:44

essentially... a recipe collection full of

26:46

whole foods and vegetarian recipes which

26:48

is The way that we encourage

26:51

people to get back to the

26:53

fundamentals of eating more fruits and

26:55

vegetables. The whole pantry was born

26:57

through Bill's own battle with brain

27:00

cancer. She was diagnosed with terminal

27:02

cancer a few years ago. After

27:04

trying the traditional treatment methods, she

27:07

turned to Whole Foods to heal

27:09

herself instead, and she soon began

27:11

to develop an app. The whole

27:14

pantry was designed as a sleek

27:16

minimalist app that offered plant-based recipes.

27:18

through food, and Belle marketed it

27:20

as a holistic wellness guide, a

27:23

resource for those looking to reclaim

27:25

their health naturally. The same meals

27:27

that she credited with curing her

27:29

cancer were now accessible to her

27:32

followers, to anybody who wanted it,

27:34

reinforcing the idea that they too could

27:36

heal themselves. If only, they followed her

27:38

lead. So in August 2013, Belle launched

27:40

the whole pantry app. And it was

27:43

successful almost immediately. I mean, within the

27:45

first month, the app was downloaded around

27:47

200,000 times. By the end of the

27:49

year, the app had earned the title

27:52

of Apple's Best Food and Drink app

27:54

of 2013. And this is what she

27:56

wanted. This is really what solidified her

27:58

place in the boom. health and wellness

28:01

industry. Her followers were already devoted,

28:03

but now they were treating her

28:05

word like gospel. But the contrast

28:07

between Belle and the content that

28:09

she posted was also striking to

28:11

certain people. Because here was this

28:13

young, healthy-looking woman sharing photos of

28:15

smoothie bowls, raw vegan meals, you

28:17

know, all these healthy organic fruits,

28:19

all while claiming to be in

28:21

the battle of her life with

28:24

cancer. But still, people flocked it

28:26

to her social media pages and

28:28

to the app. They left her heartfelt comments

28:30

about how they were dealing with their

28:32

own struggles. They were also cancer survivors

28:34

and they were battling it. And Bell

28:37

fully embraced this role as, I don't even

28:39

know how you describe it, almost

28:41

like a public healer. She didn't

28:43

just offer support, she also was

28:45

giving direct health advice. She would

28:47

respond with recommendations that ranged from

28:49

daily coffee animas, shots of apple

28:51

cider vinegar, warm water with lemon,

28:53

and then even the all-day long

28:56

repeated juice cleanses. She tried to

28:58

make it seem simple. Detox the

29:00

body, nourish yourself with whole foods,

29:02

and if you do that, you

29:04

can overcome anything. The success of

29:06

the whole pantry was nothing short

29:08

of amazing either. Overnight, Belle's life

29:10

was completely transformed. She was generating

29:13

hundreds of thousands of dollars from her

29:15

app and from her social media platforms.

29:17

Making so much money had such a

29:19

heavy influence. But this financial success of

29:22

it all, it wasn't her only goal.

29:24

She was determined to help others. So

29:26

with all of this money, the way she

29:28

wanted to help others was by making a

29:30

commitment to donate most of her profits to

29:33

charity. all with the intention of using

29:35

her platform to help those in need.

29:37

And she supported a lot of causes,

29:39

things that dealt with empowering young women

29:41

who were experiencing poverty, all the way

29:44

to non-profits for asylum seekers. I mean,

29:46

you name it. There were a lot

29:48

of different causes. But one story stuck

29:50

a particularly personal cord. Shortly after launching

29:53

her up, Belle met a couple whose

29:55

young son, just seven years old, Joshua

29:57

Schwartz, he had been diagnosed with a

30:00

rare... untreated brain cancer at the age

30:02

of five years old. So Belle

30:04

felt an immediate connection to Joshua's

30:06

struggle. She believed that his battle,

30:08

it really mirrored her own. And

30:10

she empathized deeply with his family's

30:12

pain. She wanted to be a

30:14

support system for them. She wanted

30:16

to help Joshua. So being motivated

30:18

by this connection, Belle then went

30:20

to Instagram and she announced that she

30:22

was going to donate 100% of

30:24

the week's profits from the whole

30:26

pantry, all to help the Schwartz

30:28

family, in their efforts to... get

30:30

medicine to help Joshua. And in

30:32

a heart belt caption she wrote, Josh

30:35

has a similar malignant inoperable brain

30:37

tumor to the one that I

30:39

have. From the greatest ache and

30:41

pains in my heart I feel

30:43

this little boy's journey and story. I

30:45

want to help them find a

30:47

medicine or a holistic happy miracle.

30:49

So this combination of entrepreneurial success

30:51

and passionate philanthropy not only solidified

30:53

Bell's status in the wellness community, but

30:55

it also painted a picture of

30:57

a woman who was determined to

30:59

overcome personal adversity, while also extending

31:01

just whatever lifeline she could to

31:03

others who were in need. She claimed

31:06

to have given over $300,000 to

31:08

charity. And her narrative inspired so

31:10

many supporters to help as well.

31:12

And in the wake of all

31:14

of this success, her rising fame

31:16

opened up a new opportunity. Because in

31:18

2014, she signed a book deal

31:20

with Penguin. And by November of

31:22

that year, she launched a cookbook

31:24

bearing the same name as her

31:26

app, the whole pantry. Now this wasn't

31:29

just a collection of recipes. It

31:31

was actually meant to be a

31:33

full roadmap for natural healing and

31:35

also serve as a memoir of

31:37

her personal transformation. The cookbook promised readers

31:39

an inside look at the plant-based

31:41

meals that she credited with turning

31:43

her life around. And it also

31:45

gave them a guide to embracing

31:47

a holistic holistic lifestyle. was all about

31:49

her upbringing. She recalled how she

31:51

had a difficult childhood that was

31:53

marked by early responsibility being thrown

31:55

into adulthood early on this tale

31:57

of survival. And she wrote, because

31:59

mom was so ill, she needed a

32:02

lot of help. I remember being

32:04

six years old and cooking dinner

32:06

for the first time, standing on

32:08

a chair to reach the stove.

32:10

I didn't understand the ritual of food.

32:12

Cooking was just a survival tool

32:14

to me, a job, a way

32:16

out of doing the dishes. Nutrition

32:18

was drinking fruit juice, which, by

32:20

the way, has more sugar than Coca-Cola,

32:23

and also eating more than a

32:25

stomach could handle. Leading me to

32:27

be severely overweight in my preteen

32:29

years. I moved out of the

32:31

home when I was 12 years young,

32:33

changing my life forever. It was

32:35

a year of many firsts. In

32:37

my new home, I had a

32:39

vegetable garden, and for the first

32:41

time, I found out what real

32:43

food was, how it grew, and the

32:45

importance of nurturing a garden. I

32:47

was empowering myself to save my

32:49

own life through nutrition, patience, determination,

32:51

and love. So as you can

32:53

imagine, Belle's success with her cookbook and

32:56

with her app not only propelled

32:58

her brand forward. but it also

33:00

earned her significant industry recognition. Cosmo

33:02

magazine awarded her the Fun Fearless

33:04

Female Social Media Award and L magazine

33:06

also published a feature about Bell

33:08

titled The Most Inspiring Woman You've

33:10

Met this year. Both were a

33:12

testament to her growing influence and

33:14

the impact that she was making in

33:16

the wellness community. And around that

33:18

same time, Apple also reached out

33:20

with very exciting news. They were

33:22

preparing to launch the Apple Watch

33:24

in 2015 and they announced that Bell's

33:27

app was going to be one

33:29

of the first apps that was

33:31

automatically downloaded on the watch. So

33:33

this integration not only underscored the

33:35

popularity of her app and what

33:37

really meant and how impactful it was,

33:39

but it also marked a turning

33:41

point in Bell's career, kind of

33:43

just like catapulting her into the

33:45

tech world into this new realm

33:47

of mainstream recognition. No longer was she

33:50

this isolated Australian wellness guru. She

33:52

was now on a massive global

33:54

scale, partnering with Apple. I mean,

33:56

this was huge. And with all

33:58

of this success, she found herself living

34:00

a life. and a lifestyle, I

34:02

could say, that people only dreamed

34:04

of. While she continued to donate

34:06

a ton of her money to

34:08

different charities, different organizations that were important

34:10

to her, she also used her

34:12

newfound wealth to buy a lot

34:14

of luxuries in her life. She

34:16

purchased designer clothing, she moved into

34:18

this very lavish apartment, she seemed

34:20

to acquire anything that she ever wanted

34:23

with ease, no struggle in the

34:25

world. And to many, it was

34:27

inspiring. Like, look at this poor

34:29

girl from a rough background who

34:31

worked tirelessly to defy the odds, and

34:33

she pulled herself up by her

34:35

booth straps. She's so successful now.

34:37

She's rich. She's famous. She has

34:39

everything. She's healthy. Yet behind all

34:41

of that glittery success and the everything

34:43

on the surface, the facade that

34:45

was out there started some doubts

34:47

that started creeping in. People who

34:50

were starting to question the authenticity

34:52

of some of Bell's claims. Question

34:59

1. When you lose weight, does

35:01

the stubborn fat stay in your

35:03

problem areas? And question 2. Do

35:05

your body's problem areas run in

35:07

your family? It's not about willpower.

35:09

You've willed yourself through years of

35:12

brutal diets and 5 a.m. workouts

35:14

and you're still frustrated. And if

35:16

it's not about willpower, it's likely

35:18

genetics. And if the doctors at

35:20

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35:22

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35:24

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35:42

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at sonobello.com/A-E. That's Sonobello bello.com/A-E. Today's

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episode is sponsored by Better Help.

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better help h-e-l-p.com/A-E. And prominent cancer

37:27

researchers also publicly challenged her holistic

37:29

approach, arguing that there was no

37:31

scientific basis for curing a malignant

37:33

brain tumor through a diet of

37:35

fruits, veggies, and coffee enamas. However,

37:38

whenever anybody would just voice skepticism,

37:40

her supporters just kind of all

37:42

came out rallied to her defense.

37:44

We've seen that right on YouTube,

37:46

podcasts, wherever it may be. When

37:48

the trolls come out, the army

37:50

comes full force and like counteracts

37:52

them. They would dismiss all of

37:54

these critics. They're just agents of

37:56

big pharma. They don't even know

37:58

what they're talking about her unconventional

38:00

methods They were working. They're the

38:02

true path to healing look at

38:04

her. She's a walking example of

38:06

it But adding fuel to the

38:08

fire were also the contradictions in

38:10

her public statements on one hand

38:13

her cookbook proclaimed that she had

38:15

been stable for two years with

38:17

no growth of cancer Yet around

38:19

the same time that her book

38:21

was released she also wrote on

38:23

social media that her cancer was

38:25

spreading So which was it? She wrote,

38:27

with frustration and ache in my heart,

38:29

it hurts me to find space tonight

38:32

to let you all know with love

38:34

and strength that I have been diagnosed

38:36

with a third and fourth cancer. One

38:38

is secondary and the other is

38:41

primary. I have cancer in my

38:43

blood, spleen, brain, uterus, and liver.

38:45

I am hurting. So this was a

38:48

huge inconsistency, right? I mean, if her

38:50

methods worked so well, why was she

38:52

getting worse? So it cast a lot

38:54

of doubt on whether or not

38:57

her approach really was working, whether

38:59

or not she was somebody who

39:01

could be trusted. And the controversies

39:03

surrounding her wasn't also without real-world

39:05

consequences, because some followers who were

39:08

desperate for a cure, they abandoned

39:10

conventional methods. They abandoned modern medicine

39:12

and just started following her recommendations.

39:14

One woman, Kylie Willie, recounted how

39:16

she even delayed standard treatment for

39:19

her leukemia just so that she

39:21

could follow Belle's advice. And as

39:23

a result, she nearly lost her

39:25

life. because once she started following

39:27

Bell's advice, Kylie didn't get better.

39:29

She got much, much worse. Thankfully,

39:31

she abandoned Bell's methods almost as

39:33

quickly as she started them, and

39:36

then she went back to receiving

39:38

treatment recommended by her doctor. So,

39:40

thankfully, she recovered, but she wondered

39:42

what may have happened if she

39:44

continued to follow Bell's advice. I

39:46

was at my girlfriend's hair salon

39:48

and it flicked up on my

39:50

social media that Bell Gibson had lied.

39:52

I just burst out straight up by saying,

39:55

Oh my god, Belle Gibson was a liar!

39:57

I don't know, I felt betrayed and a

39:59

little bit... let down by her and

40:01

then the absolute mind-blowing, why the

40:03

hell would you do that? Why

40:05

would you pretend to have cancer?

40:07

Like, what the hell? I felt

40:09

like it made me look like

40:11

an idiot. People also wondered why

40:13

Bell would invest so much time,

40:15

so much money, so much effort

40:17

into building this app and writing

40:19

a book if she truly believed

40:21

that she was dying. There were

40:23

so many questions. I mean, why

40:25

wasn't she more terrified upon learning

40:27

that she was pregnant, given her

40:29

supposed terminal diagnosis? And why did

40:31

she describe her brain tumor as

40:33

stage two, when brain cancers are

40:35

typically classified by grades rather than

40:37

stages? So in the midst of

40:39

like her rising fame, her luxurious

40:41

lifestyle, all of these things, these

40:43

contradictions and these controversies began to

40:45

ruin the trust of some of

40:47

Bell's loyal followers. While some of

40:49

her supporters remained, like fiercely loyal,

40:51

like fiercely loyal, Other people also

40:53

started noticing a pattern of inconsistency,

40:55

and that started calling into question

40:57

the claims that she had built

40:59

this entire business, this entire career,

41:01

an empire on. And these suspicions

41:03

were not limited to the medical

41:06

community and to Bell supporters. Close

41:08

friends were also starting to question

41:10

Bell's claims. One friend even started

41:12

noticing that whenever Bell said that

41:14

she was going to doctors appointments

41:16

and she claimed that these appointments

41:18

were cancer related, she was actually

41:20

going to appointments for cosmetic procedures,

41:22

like Botox or getting veneers, which

41:24

is obviously much different than going

41:26

to a cancer treatment facility. If

41:28

you're just like walking into an

41:30

injector, it makes no sense. And

41:32

by early 2015. Chanel, one of

41:34

Bell's closest friends, had begun to

41:36

suspect that something was off with

41:38

Bell's claims about having cancer. Chanel

41:40

and Bell had met back in

41:42

2012 or 2013, when Chanel, then

41:44

a journalist intern, was assigned to

41:46

interview Bell. Their initial connection grew

41:48

very quickly, and soon they became

41:50

very close friends. However, over time,

41:52

small red flags began to accumulate.

41:54

For instance, Bell once asked Chanel

41:56

to cook meals for the Schwartz

41:58

family. little boy who had cancer,

42:00

the family that she claimed to

42:02

be supporting because their young son

42:04

was battling brain cancer. So Chanel,

42:06

always eager to help, had spent

42:08

two full days preparing a huge

42:10

batch of very nutritious meals, things

42:12

for this family, believing these meals

42:14

were meant for the Schwartz family.

42:16

It was going to help them.

42:18

It was one less thing for

42:20

them to think about and it

42:22

would really, you know, be a

42:24

nice thing to do. However, during

42:26

a visit to Bell's home, Chanel

42:28

was very surprised when she found

42:30

that these meals were all still

42:32

packed Bell's refrigerator, untouched, never delivered.

42:34

So it became painfully clear that

42:36

Belle had misled her at some

42:38

point along the way, using this

42:40

guides of charity to convince Chanel

42:42

to cook while secretly then keeping

42:44

the food for herself. And her

42:46

suspicions only got worse because things

42:48

weren't aligning with somebody who was

42:50

fighting a terminal illness. Belle was

42:52

often seen drinking, doing drugs, eating

42:54

junk food, even spending a lot

42:56

of time in tanning beds, which

42:58

is a lifestyle that is completely

43:00

different, not only from someone... who

43:02

is a cancer patient and what

43:04

you would expect them to be

43:06

doing, but so different from the

43:08

lifestyle that she was portraying on

43:10

social media, the public persona she

43:12

was putting out there. Things just

43:14

started to not add up for

43:16

me. There was a few things

43:18

that happened, you know, like excessive

43:20

drinking of alcohol, going to a

43:22

celerium and tanning, like obviously skin

43:24

cancer is a really big issue

43:26

here in Australia. So those things

43:28

didn't really make sense to me.

43:30

I had a family friend who

43:32

passed away of cancer and I

43:34

had witnessed their journey with it.

43:36

was kind of aware of someone

43:38

who is actually very sick of

43:40

cancer and what that looks like

43:42

and they get to the point

43:44

where they're very frail and bedridden

43:46

and Belle was never presented that

43:48

that kind of those kind of

43:50

symptoms. She was always very active,

43:52

very well kind of thriving. running

43:54

a business empire. Now the tipping

43:56

point for all of this came

43:58

one night at a birthday party

44:00

for Belle's son Oliver because as

44:02

the event started to wind down

44:04

something truly crazy happened. Belle just

44:06

collapsed right there on the floor.

44:09

She started convulsing. saliva was coming

44:11

out of her mouth. Her body

44:13

was shaking uncontrollably. It was... extremely

44:15

scary. Chanel started screaming for an

44:17

ambulance, but she saw a bell

44:19

then abruptly when she started screaming

44:21

for the ambulance, like snap back

44:23

to normal and dismiss the entire

44:25

incident saying, I don't want Western

44:27

medicine interfering. I'm supposed to be

44:29

healing naturally. Don't call anybody. I'm

44:31

fine. I'm fine. But it was

44:33

almost like that jolt of where

44:35

Belle kind of snapped out of

44:37

this seizure or whatever you would

44:39

call it. only happened when Chanel

44:41

was going to call an ambulance.

44:43

So she was completely disturbed by

44:45

this and started questioning whether Bell

44:47

was kind of mimicking the symptoms

44:49

of cancer patients. all to make

44:51

her illness feel more genuine, to

44:53

sell her story, to make it

44:55

feel more real. Then, after witnessing

44:57

Belle at a bar one night,

44:59

taking shots, ripping shots, Chanel started

45:01

confiding in mutual friends, being like,

45:03

something's up here. Something doesn't feel

45:05

right. She was sharing her doubts

45:07

with them. She was just kind

45:09

of being like, this doesn't track,

45:11

this isn't making sense, and a

45:13

lot of them were also starting

45:15

to wonder if Belle's stories were

45:17

true. So that very night the

45:19

group of friends decided they were

45:21

going to confront Belle at her

45:23

apartment. Chanel very quickly just bluntly

45:25

said, hey are you sick? Tell

45:27

me, yes or no, are you

45:29

sick? But Belle's reply was extremely

45:31

vague and very defensive. She just

45:33

simply replied saying, of course I

45:35

am. I arrived at her house

45:37

one night basically kind of unannounced

45:39

with another friend. I was kind

45:41

of very straightforward with her. said,

45:43

are you sick? I basically demanded

45:45

to see evidence of her cancer.

45:47

I asked her to go get

45:49

any scans, doctors reports, surgeons reports,

45:51

any... medical evidence she would have

45:53

in her home. She said she

45:55

didn't like to keep that type

45:57

of evidence because it's negative energy.

45:59

So as the conversation progressed, and

46:01

what is now dubbed the intervention

46:03

from that night, just every every

46:05

answer she was giving me was

46:07

just confirming my gut instinct that

46:09

she was lying. She had just

46:11

announced that her cancer had been

46:13

spread, it was stage four. And

46:15

I asked her where she got

46:17

that diagnosis up at what hospital.

46:19

She said she didn't go to

46:21

a hospital. She went to some

46:23

random doctor's house. And I asked

46:25

for that doctor was and she

46:27

said, Dr. Phil. And as the

46:29

conversation continued, she just grew more

46:31

and more defensive. She insisted that

46:33

she truly did have cancer. Yet

46:35

every response she was giving. It

46:37

just made the group doubt her

46:39

more. And Chanel was urging Belle,

46:41

just come clean, you don't even

46:43

realize how much harm you're causing,

46:45

you just need to tell the

46:47

truth. But Belle refused to admit

46:49

that she was lying. So Chanel,

46:51

feeling like Belle's lies, could mislead

46:53

others, she decided she was going

46:55

to take further action. She reached

46:57

out to lawyers, law enforcement, and

46:59

even investigative journalists. All of which

47:01

initially said they couldn't help her.

47:03

But word of Chanel's concerns eventually

47:05

reached two reporters from a publication

47:07

called The Age. Using the information

47:10

provided by Chanel and a few

47:12

other people who were close to

47:14

Bell, they then began investigating Bell's

47:16

story. Ultimately uncovering mounting evidence that

47:18

suggested Belle had fabricated her entire

47:20

diagnosis. However, it was really hard

47:22

to prove that Belle was lying

47:24

about her medical stuff and having

47:26

cancer because they wouldn't have immediate

47:28

access to her medical files. But

47:30

then the light bulb kind of

47:32

went off to where they're like,

47:34

okay, well if she's lying about

47:36

her medical diagnosis, what else could

47:38

she be lying about? So one

47:40

of the first lies that they

47:42

uncovered was her age. had long

47:44

maintained an image of maturity that

47:46

didn't quite match her background, but

47:48

remember, she also said that she

47:50

had to grow up very early,

47:52

that she was thrown into adulthood.

47:54

She even claimed to have had

47:56

her son when she was 20

47:58

years old, when in fact, records

48:00

later showed that she was only

48:02

17 years old at the time.

48:04

So it seemed like she deliberately

48:06

made herself older to sound more

48:08

credible. And then, after these reporters

48:10

started speaking to former friends of

48:12

Bell's, all of these stories started

48:14

coming out about how she would

48:16

have this reputation for embellishing stories

48:18

or lying or making things up

48:20

all before her wellness career took

48:22

off, that she would lie for

48:24

attention constantly, and then she just,

48:26

you know, boom, made it. One

48:28

friend even recounted an incident where

48:30

Bell faked a heart attack. While

48:32

others said, yeah, and sometimes she

48:34

would also show up to school

48:36

with her arm in a sling,

48:38

pretending she had broken it, she

48:40

also told people she was a

48:42

test tube baby, anything to give

48:44

her, you know, a little edge,

48:46

a little bit of attention, and

48:48

it got to the point where

48:50

nobody believed her and everybody would

48:52

say, okay, sure, okay, like, it's

48:54

no weight in her stories anymore.

48:56

But the biggest issue turned out

48:58

to be her claims about the

49:00

charity. Remember, Belle often bragged about

49:02

donating huge chunks of her profits.

49:04

She even said that she had

49:06

given away $300,000 to nearly 20

49:08

different causes, causes like maternal health

49:10

care, human rights, community projects, even

49:12

direct support for families who were

49:14

in crisis. But when these reporters

49:16

dug deeper, they found almost no

49:18

evidence that any of this money

49:20

had ever gone to the intended

49:22

charities. And many of the organizations

49:24

that Belle had mentioned weren't even

49:26

a... aware that they were being

49:28

used to boost her image. And

49:30

records only showed donations totaling around

49:32

$7,000 over the course of several

49:34

years, nowhere near the amount that

49:36

she had claimed. And one case

49:38

that really stood out, of course,

49:40

was the Schwartz family, Little Joshua.

49:42

Belle had written about their son

49:44

in her cookbook. She had described

49:46

him as this little man after

49:48

her own heart, talking about how

49:50

they had this unintendedimated friendship and

49:52

how she could relate to him

49:54

so much. She even had organized...

49:56

fundraising for this family. But when

49:58

the journalists reached out to them,

50:00

they said they had never even

50:02

received a dime from Bell that

50:04

they didn't even know that she

50:06

was raising money for them. And

50:08

Joshua's mom also said, you know,

50:11

Bell was asking us a lot

50:13

of questions about Joshua's diagnosis, details

50:15

about it, almost like she was

50:17

trying to gather that information to

50:19

then use it as her own

50:21

story for her own health. The

50:23

whole thing was starting to unravel.

50:25

So in March of 2015, the

50:27

Age published an article and it

50:29

laid out all of these discrepancies.

50:31

It highlighted Belle's fake age, her

50:33

sketchy charity claims, her friends casting

50:35

doubt and painting her as a

50:37

rep having a reputation as a

50:39

liar, and this had a huge

50:41

response from the community. It went

50:43

viral. Suddenly, every single claim that

50:46

Belle had ever made, whether it's

50:48

about her health, about her donations,

50:50

it was all under serious scrutiny.

50:52

After the article, even the institutions

50:54

that had once backed Bell began

50:56

to rethink their support. Penguin, the

50:58

publisher of her cookbook, eventually revealed

51:00

that they never found any evidence to back

51:03

up Bell's claim that she had cancer.

51:05

They simply had just taken her word for

51:07

it. I mean, after all, who would ever

51:09

lie about something so serious? Cosmo, the

51:11

magazine behind that award, also later admitted they

51:14

never actually fact-checked Bell's claims. At first,

51:16

they defended her, claiming that the award was

51:18

determined by reader votes and that Bell

51:20

won fair and fair and square and square,

51:22

fair and square. just continued to mount and

51:25

brew, then they started feeling the pressure

51:27

and they ended up pulling back and rescinding

51:29

the award from Bell. And around that

51:31

same time, L magazine, that magazine that

51:33

published the in-depth story about Bell, they

51:35

disclosed that shortly after their article went

51:37

live, they received an anonymous email. This

51:39

email read... It has come to my

51:41

attention that you have published a story

51:43

about a girl I have known my

51:45

whole life. Her name is Belle Gibson,

51:47

creator of the whole pantry app and

51:49

book, and she's also the so-called terminal cancer

51:52

patient. Unfortunately, there are a few things

51:54

that you might need to know before

51:56

you consider publishing more about this woman.

51:58

She is a compulsive liar. In fact, she

52:00

got so tangled in her own web

52:03

of lies living in Brisbane that she

52:05

moved to Melbourne to start a new

52:07

life of lies, the cancer lie, this

52:09

time. For one, this girl isn't 26

52:11

years old. She was born in 1991,

52:14

class of 2008, at Wynham High School

52:16

in Queensland. My younger brother was in

52:18

her class. Secondly, she never had nor

52:20

does she currently have any form of

52:22

cancer. Where's the proof? I've known Belle

52:25

since her childhood and I'm close with

52:27

her mother, and she has always had

52:29

a problem with fabricating stories from nothing

52:31

on a regular basis. It's one thing

52:34

to act as if she can cure

52:36

her cancer by eating organic, which simply

52:38

isn't true, but to give false hope

52:40

to people who are actually fighting cancer

52:42

is nothing short of evil. You must

52:45

be aware of this before you publish

52:47

stories about this woman. She is selling

52:49

her fake sob story in order to

52:51

profit from her app and her book

52:54

sales. She is a wolf and sheep's

52:56

clothing. a master manipulator. Sincerely, sick of

52:58

seeing her lives published. Now the magazine

53:00

said that they didn't believe this email

53:02

at first, but then after that article

53:05

from the age was released, they were

53:07

starting to wonder if this anonymous person

53:09

who wrote this letter was in fact

53:11

telling the truth. So, facing mounting backlash

53:13

and growing scrutiny, Bell began to backpedal,

53:16

started to change her story. Sort of.

53:24

I don't know about you guys, but

53:26

I've told you I think before, getting

53:28

my kids to eat all of their

53:31

veggies and don't even get me started

53:33

on vitamins, because most of them are

53:35

just basically candy in disguise, they are

53:38

loaded with sugar, weird gummy junk, additives,

53:40

all of those things. That's why I

53:42

was so excited to find Haya, a

53:45

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53:47

kids, with zero sugar, and all of

53:49

the nutrients that they actually need. Now

53:51

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53:54

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53:56

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53:58

veggies and veggies, plus 12 organic fruits

54:01

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54:03

veggies, plus 15 and veggies, plus 15,

54:05

So basically, all the good stuff that

54:08

kids need to grow strong and healthy.

54:10

And the best part, my kids actually

54:12

love them. Even Theo... who is honestly

54:15

so picky, he gets so excited to

54:17

take his vitamin every morning. Plus, when

54:19

your first order arrives, your kids get

54:22

to decorate their own bottle with stickers,

54:24

with like colors, it makes it way

54:26

more fun and it just gets them

54:29

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54:31

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54:33

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54:36

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54:38

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54:40

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54:43

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54:45

or a non-dary alternative. And then boom,

54:47

they're like getting their grains without

54:49

the arguments, without the fight, without them

54:52

being like, eww, it's green, that's what

54:54

my kids do. So if you're tired

54:56

of reading labels and worrying about what's

54:59

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55:01

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55:03

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55:18

of Bell's first moves when she started

55:20

backpedaling was to claim that a 2013

55:23

fundraising event had actually been an app

55:25

launch party. So in other words, she

55:27

was trying to say the event wasn't

55:29

some attempt to raise money that never

55:32

went to charity, no. It was, you

55:34

know, a launch party, it was to

55:36

celebrate. However, the invitation for the event

55:38

told a very different story. It clearly

55:41

listed three charities on it. One that

55:43

was dedicated to building schools in Sierra

55:45

Leone, another supporting mothers and their babies

55:48

in developing countries, and a third aiming

55:50

at helping a critically ill five-year-old receive

55:52

life-saving treatments overseas. The invitation even included

55:54

a link to a website that's titled

55:57

The Whole Pantry Community and Charity Selfts.

55:59

celebrations, which stated that ticket sale proceeds

56:01

would go towards four charities that the

56:04

community was passionate about. There was also

56:06

another campaign in May of 2014 claiming

56:08

that the proceeds from app sales would

56:10

be donated to two charities. But shocker,

56:13

as it turns out, neither charity ever

56:15

received a single cent from Bell's company.

56:17

Yet still, she tried to argue that

56:19

these events, they were not fundraising events

56:22

at all. Now when these simple explanations

56:24

didn't put people at ease and calm

56:26

people down and when the scrutiny continued,

56:29

you know. not even circulating but actually

56:31

growing, she decided to turn to social

56:33

media to fight back. And she urged

56:35

her followers to attack the journalists who

56:38

were exposing her, accusing them of knowingly

56:40

contributing to the blatant attacking and bullying

56:42

of myself and my family. At the

56:44

direct quote. But even now this aggressive

56:47

stance, it wasn't going to combat the

56:49

mounting evidence against her, right? So in

56:51

a desperate attempt to cover her tracks,

56:54

Belle began erasing her digital footprint entirely.

56:56

She deleted posts that referenced her illness,

56:58

she deleted posts that referenced her charity

57:00

work, she removed comments questioning her claims,

57:03

and she wiped out most of her

57:05

posts from 2010 to 2012. Her whole

57:07

pantry Facebook page and Twitter account also

57:09

vanished, and thousands of photos disappeared from

57:12

her personal and professional Instagram profiles. This

57:14

frantic cleanup, of course, only deepened suspicions,

57:16

though, that her carefully curated story was

57:19

just entirely built on a web of

57:21

deception. And now she wanted to eliminate

57:23

any trace of it. She wanted to

57:25

clean it up like it never happened,

57:28

so people wouldn't have the proof or

57:30

couldn't start piecing together the puzzle pieces

57:32

of this whole elaborate lie. Then there

57:35

was also an example. that was under

57:37

the name Harry Gibson and it was

57:39

aggressively attacking anybody who dared to question

57:41

Bell's claims. Investigator reporters very quickly determined

57:44

that this Harry Gibson was none other

57:46

than Bell herself, which I gotta say,

57:48

if you're gonna use a pseudonym to

57:50

try to like pretend to be somebody

57:53

else to defend yourself, maybe. don't use

57:55

the same last name that you have.

57:57

Right? Like, maybe that's a way to

58:00

start. I don't know. So as more

58:02

journalists began exposing her story, Belle's desperation

58:04

became evident. In one particularly aggressive move,

58:06

she reached out directly to a reporter,

58:09

and she accused them of pushing people

58:11

to the brink of suicide with the

58:13

stories about her, saying, you're writing such

58:15

terrible things about me, it's making other

58:18

people suicidal. It's making them want to

58:20

kill themselves. You need to stop. which

58:22

this was just another reminder that she

58:25

would go to any lengths to defend

58:27

her narrative. But under this mounting pressure...

58:29

Belle eventually had to address the controversy

58:31

over all of her charitable contributions. She

58:34

admitted that the donations that she had

58:36

promised were in fact delayed, but that

58:38

it was because of poor record-keeping and

58:41

cash flow problems. It wasn't at all

58:43

because she was planning on keeping this

58:45

money for herself. She blamed disappointing sales

58:47

and miscalculated profits for the setbacks, insisting

58:50

that the money was still earmarked for

58:52

a donation. The whole pantry's business page

58:54

even released an official statement saying, TWP's

58:56

new business management and accounts team are

58:59

working through the workload of bringing the

59:01

accounts and businesses up to date. And

59:03

all charities have been openly communicated with

59:06

and they are aware of our intentions

59:08

to uphold this financial support when the

59:10

necessary keeping of the business are finalized.

59:12

Now I'll be honest, that kind of

59:15

makes sense to me, but it also

59:17

kind of feels like a word salad.

59:19

Okay, at least she was addressing it

59:21

and making a statement, right? But there

59:24

was still public outrage. People were pissed

59:26

and things continued to unravel for Bell.

59:28

A few months after that first article,

59:31

she finally agreed to do an interview

59:33

with Australian Woman's Weekly and... I gotta

59:35

be honest, she thought this was a

59:37

strategic move, but it was a decision

59:40

that only ended up hurting her more

59:42

in the long run. Because in that

59:44

interview, Belle admitted that the stories that

59:47

she had spun about her cancer were

59:49

all fake. Well, not all of them,

59:51

but at least the recent claims of

59:53

her being diagnosed with a third and

59:56

fourth cancer and its spreading. Yet even

59:58

as she admitted that these stories were

1:00:00

untrue, she maintained that her... her alternative

1:00:02

therapies had been her lifeline in fighting

1:00:05

what she once claimed was an aggressive

1:00:07

brain tumor for five years. She said,

1:00:09

quote, none of it's true. I don't

1:00:12

want forgiveness. I just think speaking out

1:00:14

was the responsible thing to do. She

1:00:16

went on to explain that there was

1:00:18

a point where she truly believed she

1:00:21

had cancer, but that the lack of

1:00:23

clear answers from her doctors let her

1:00:25

to start theorizing on her own. She

1:00:27

tried to explain her actions away too

1:00:30

by saying, if I don't have an

1:00:32

answer, then I will sort of come

1:00:34

up with one. It's easy to do

1:00:37

when you're left in the dark. Now

1:00:39

the most surprising thing about this interview

1:00:41

was that Bell showed absolutely zero remorse

1:00:43

for lying. Instead, she attributed her lies

1:00:46

and her fabrications all back to her

1:00:48

troubled childhood, to her rough upbringing. She

1:00:50

really blamed her estranged mother for leaving

1:00:52

her and for making her fend for

1:00:55

herself starting at the age of five.

1:00:57

Yet this explanation, which I believe was

1:00:59

carefully curated to evoke sympathy, it fell

1:01:02

flat for a lot of people, and

1:01:04

it felt like a really bad justification

1:01:06

for such a horrible lie. So shortly

1:01:08

after this interview, Belle then appeared on

1:01:11

60... minutes Australia in what would become

1:01:13

one of the most infamous interviews of

1:01:15

her entire career in this interview she

1:01:18

looked clean refreshed she had this huge

1:01:20

hot pink lip gloss and hot pink

1:01:22

turtle neck sweater on which I honestly

1:01:24

I'm gonna tell you I thought about

1:01:27

wearing a hot pink turtle neck for

1:01:29

this episode I don't own one though

1:01:31

but I was like that'd be so

1:01:33

funny if I just like dressed like

1:01:36

her I don't know just because she

1:01:38

looks like such a freaking tri-hard but

1:01:40

anyway it seemed like she was doing

1:01:43

this to portray herself as super polished

1:01:45

and also to like distract people a

1:01:47

little bit if that makes sense I

1:01:49

don't know but in this interview she

1:01:52

tried to make every excuse possible to

1:01:54

defend why she lied about everything everything

1:01:56

from her early claims of those heart

1:01:58

issues to then those later claims of

1:02:01

brain cancer. Were you in hospital at

1:02:03

the time that you were posting these?

1:02:05

No. I mean you go into extraordinary

1:02:08

details. I had surgery about seven hours

1:02:10

ago. The doctor comes in and tells

1:02:12

me the draining failed and I went

1:02:14

into cardiac arrest and died for just

1:02:17

under three minutes. I had the most

1:02:19

intense bruising from the paddles when they

1:02:21

electrocuted me back to consciousness. Minus the

1:02:24

wires and constant throwing up of blood.

1:02:26

Anyway, the procedure failed and I died.

1:02:29

So you haven't read back through

1:02:32

all of that, but I also

1:02:34

think when you're young and have

1:02:37

gone through the situation I had

1:02:39

just gone through, you are melodramatic.

1:02:41

I don't have... Melodramatic, now? I

1:02:44

mean, they're straight out lies. You

1:02:46

weren't in hospital. You're claiming you

1:02:48

were... You claimed you died twice.

1:02:51

You didn't. Claim to have two

1:02:53

kind of arrests. You didn't. That's

1:02:56

not melodramatic. That's straight out lying.

1:02:58

It is extraordinary lies. And if

1:03:00

you lie about that. And you

1:03:03

go to those extraordinary lengths to

1:03:05

create the story around that lie.

1:03:08

How can we believe anything you

1:03:10

say now? Tara, I have lost

1:03:12

everything and I'm not here to

1:03:15

regain it. But when you hit

1:03:17

rock bottom, there is only an

1:03:20

opportunity to be honest and to

1:03:22

heal and to apologize. And I'm

1:03:24

here to do that. There

1:03:27

is no reason for me to lie,

1:03:29

and it's not something I want to

1:03:32

be doing either. So I didn't know

1:03:34

whether I was getting worse. I didn't

1:03:36

know if I was getting better. I

1:03:38

didn't know if it was the same.

1:03:40

I thought that it was important to

1:03:42

go and seek a scan and be

1:03:45

confident in where I stood. I don't

1:03:47

mean to be crass about it, but

1:03:49

it was also the fact that despite

1:03:51

being given a four-month deadline, you're still

1:03:53

alive? Yeah. An indicator to you that

1:03:55

you didn't have brain cancer? It wasn't

1:03:57

an indicator. I went to the Alford

1:04:00

Hospital and... I contacted Mark and I

1:04:02

said to him, I'm not sure

1:04:04

where things are at. So I want

1:04:06

to go and get a brain scan.

1:04:08

He had me sign paperwork

1:04:11

which enlisted him as my

1:04:13

medical professional where the scan

1:04:15

from the Alfred would be

1:04:18

then passed on to him

1:04:20

so we could also consult

1:04:22

on it. Right. So what did

1:04:24

the brain scan show? He brought

1:04:27

in scans. and it showed a

1:04:29

brain tumor. But that wasn't my

1:04:31

scan, because most recently I went

1:04:33

back to the Alfred and

1:04:35

I got my full portfolio

1:04:37

from them. And I did get

1:04:39

that brain scan, but there is

1:04:41

no brain tumor there. Okay, so what

1:04:44

date was that, Bill? When did you

1:04:46

go to the Alfred? I

1:04:48

will be able to give you this information.

1:04:51

Well, we've already asked for background information.

1:04:53

We've asked for all your medical records

1:04:55

and your medical history. You haven't given

1:04:57

us any dates. You haven't given us

1:04:59

any brain scans. You haven't given us

1:05:02

any MRIs. You haven't given us any

1:05:04

tissue tests. You haven't given us anything.

1:05:06

I wasn't explicitly asked for any of

1:05:08

that, but I have it. Well, really?

1:05:10

Of course I do. The producers I've

1:05:13

been working with are aware of

1:05:15

my health position. I wasn't... Bell,

1:05:17

Bell, Bell, please. I mean, I

1:05:19

think you're interested in getting to

1:05:21

the bottom of this and presenting

1:05:23

the facts as they are the

1:05:26

facts. or you're not. Now instead

1:05:28

of providing clarification, this interview, it

1:05:30

just caused more confusion, because this

1:05:32

time, she claimed that she had

1:05:34

been wrongfully diagnosed with cancer, that

1:05:36

a German alternative medicine practitioner back

1:05:38

in 2009 is the one who

1:05:41

diagnosed her with brain cancer, and

1:05:43

that it was a misdiagnosis, so she

1:05:45

can't be held responsible for this. And

1:05:47

according to this new story, she truly

1:05:49

did believe that she was dying, and

1:05:52

she underwent this German... quote, magnetic therapy,

1:05:54

mistakenly thinking that it was a form

1:05:56

of radiation treatment that was meant to

1:05:59

cure her cancer. When she was

1:06:01

pressed by the interviewer to name

1:06:03

the doctor who misdiagnosed her, she

1:06:05

couldn't provide a name though. Instead,

1:06:07

she maintained, I've not been intentionally

1:06:09

untruthful. I have been openly speaking

1:06:11

about what was my reality, which

1:06:13

I'm going to say that again,

1:06:15

because it is very smart and

1:06:17

very carefully worded. I've not been

1:06:19

intentionally untruthful. I've been openly speaking

1:06:21

about what was my reality. Kind

1:06:23

of creating this loophole to say.

1:06:25

Even though I didn't have cancer,

1:06:27

it was my reality at the

1:06:29

time that I did. I thought

1:06:31

that I did, so I can't

1:06:33

be held responsible for this. To

1:06:35

where the accountability doesn't quite fall

1:06:37

on her. From an outsider's point

1:06:39

of view, it certainly does, but

1:06:41

just very careful with the words

1:06:43

that she's using. Belle also admitted

1:06:45

that by 2011 she realized that

1:06:47

this German doctor had misdiagnosed her.

1:06:49

Yet she still claimed that something

1:06:52

was wrong. She just didn't know

1:06:54

what. So she insisted that she

1:06:56

was still trying to make sense

1:06:58

of everything. She was still trying

1:07:00

to figure out what was happening

1:07:02

with her body. She was seeking

1:07:04

treatment from conventional medical professionals. She

1:07:06

was struggling to define her own

1:07:08

symptoms. She was just trying to

1:07:10

figure it out. So then when

1:07:12

she was asked by this interview

1:07:14

or directly, did you have cancer?

1:07:16

She hesitated a little bit. But

1:07:18

then she replied, I really hope

1:07:20

not. And eventually this interview just

1:07:22

went off the rails and got

1:07:24

so ridiculous, Belle couldn't even give

1:07:26

a straight answer to the most

1:07:28

simplest of questions. Did you live

1:07:30

in fear of being found out?

1:07:32

No. Because I wasn't living in

1:07:34

a space where I didn't know

1:07:36

that this wasn't my reality. Would

1:07:38

you accept that you're a pathological

1:07:40

liar? No. Do you take responsibility

1:07:43

for driving any people away from

1:07:45

conventional medicine in seeking treatment for

1:07:47

their cancer? That would be really

1:07:49

heartbreaking to me because I never

1:07:51

intended on doing that. Do you

1:07:53

accept that that's what you might

1:07:55

have done? I accept that might

1:07:57

have happened. Well, actually, how old

1:07:59

are you? I've always been

1:08:01

raised as being currently a 26

1:08:03

year old. How old are you?

1:08:06

Well I live knowing as I've

1:08:08

always known that I would be

1:08:10

26. Okay Bill. This is a

1:08:12

really really simple question. How old

1:08:14

are you? I believe that I'm

1:08:16

26. I have... Two birth certificate

1:08:19

and I've had my name change

1:08:21

four times. The identity crisis there

1:08:23

is big, but that was my

1:08:25

normal when I was growing up,

1:08:27

Tara, that... What do you know

1:08:30

the truth to be now? That's

1:08:32

probably a question that we'll have

1:08:34

to keep digging for, because it's

1:08:36

not something I've ever understood or

1:08:38

had answers around. So when you

1:08:41

needed to file some financial documents...

1:08:43

How did you choose the birth

1:08:45

date you gave, if you don't

1:08:47

know? With my most recent deed-pull

1:08:49

paper, which has the younger of

1:08:51

the age and the most recent

1:08:54

of the name. Right. So, currently,

1:08:56

then, according to those documents, you're

1:08:58

23. Correct. Tara. I'm trying to

1:09:00

draw on information. No, no, don't

1:09:02

draw on information. Just be honest.

1:09:05

I am being honest with you.

1:09:07

I'm trying to be open to

1:09:09

what you're saying, but you were

1:09:11

just muddying the waters with every

1:09:13

answer. I mean, word salad, but

1:09:15

also so roundabout and... Looney tune,

1:09:18

it's just bizarre to me. So

1:09:20

as the controversy deepened, the fallout

1:09:22

happened pretty quickly. Apple, who was

1:09:24

once super excited and eager to

1:09:26

feature her app on their brand

1:09:29

new Apple watch, they announced that

1:09:31

not only are they not featuring

1:09:33

her app on her app featuring

1:09:35

her app on her app on

1:09:37

their new Apple watch, they announced

1:09:40

that not only are they not

1:09:42

featuring her app on the watch,

1:09:44

it was like, house of cards,

1:09:46

it was all starting to fall.

1:09:48

And in the midst of all

1:09:50

this unraveling. even more voices started

1:09:53

emerging, shedding light on the many,

1:09:55

many layers of Bell's deception. And

1:09:57

one of the most striking revelations

1:09:59

came from her own family. Bell's

1:10:01

own stepfather stepped forward to tell

1:10:04

a very different story. He admitted

1:10:06

that her childhood, yes, had been

1:10:08

far from easy, and Bell did

1:10:10

indeed leave home around the age

1:10:12

12, but instead of disappearing and

1:10:14

bouncing from friend house to friend

1:10:17

house and couch surfing, she moved

1:10:19

in with an older male neighbor.

1:10:21

a man who lived just down

1:10:23

the street from her mother. Which

1:10:25

I have to say, that is

1:10:28

really crazy. What kind of mother

1:10:30

in their right mind would allow

1:10:32

their 12-year-old daughter to move out

1:10:34

and go live with an older

1:10:36

adult male who has no relation

1:10:39

to the family? I mean, I

1:10:41

don't want to speculate, but I

1:10:43

can only imagine what probably went

1:10:45

on in that house. It can't

1:10:47

be good. Bell's mother later spoke

1:10:49

out to, offering a very different

1:10:52

account of Bell's childhood. What a

1:10:54

lot of rubbish! Belle never cared

1:10:56

for me. Her brother is not

1:10:58

autistic and she's barely done a

1:11:00

minutes housework in her entire life.

1:11:03

I've practically worked myself into an

1:11:05

early grave to give that girl

1:11:07

everything that she wanted in life.

1:11:09

And adding to this mounting evidence

1:11:11

against Belle and all of her

1:11:14

claims, her brother Nick also broke

1:11:16

his silence in an interview. He

1:11:18

confirmed he was not autistic. and

1:11:20

he also expressed genuine confusion over

1:11:22

why Bell would have described him

1:11:24

that way. He recalled that he

1:11:27

and Bell had been close when

1:11:29

they were younger, but then as

1:11:31

they grew older, he noticed a

1:11:33

disturbing shift in her behavior. I

1:11:35

don't like that hate word, but

1:11:38

sometimes I feel like turning around

1:11:40

to her and saying, Bell, I

1:11:42

hate you. What has your sister

1:11:44

done to your life? She's she

1:11:46

stuffed it up real bad. I've

1:11:49

had to go through cancelling myself.

1:11:51

I don't like to be in

1:11:53

public. I've had people come up

1:11:55

to me and ask me questions.

1:11:58

And they think I'm like her

1:12:00

when I'm not nothing like her.

1:12:02

But I really hope she does

1:12:04

watch this and see how much

1:12:06

I am hurting. You are, aren't

1:12:08

you? You're broken. I am. You

1:12:10

know, my kids see me hurting

1:12:12

as well? I don't have autism

1:12:15

at all, no. Even when I

1:12:17

was a kid, she used to

1:12:19

call me retard. What did that

1:12:21

make you think about yourself growing

1:12:23

up? I hate myself and I

1:12:25

didn't want to be around. I

1:12:27

was shy, placid, and I didn't

1:12:29

like to be out in the

1:12:31

public just because things she said.

1:12:34

And she's come out and said

1:12:36

that you're virtually nonverbal. It's correct.

1:12:38

I talked to a lot of

1:12:40

people. I do have trouble with

1:12:42

reading or writing, but that's, you

1:12:44

know, it's always been the case.

1:12:46

She knows what she's done and

1:12:48

said it's completely wrong. Like it's,

1:12:50

it's embarrassing. So with family members

1:12:53

coming forward, friends speaking out, cracks

1:12:55

in her story widening. I mean,

1:12:57

it was only a matter of

1:12:59

time until House of Bell was

1:13:01

going to be like just rubble,

1:13:03

right? And by May of 2016,

1:13:05

consumer affairs announced that they were

1:13:07

seeking legal action against Bell. This

1:13:09

legal action was for making false

1:13:12

claims about a terminal brain cancer

1:13:14

diagnosis and for of course fabricating

1:13:16

charity donations. So as legal action

1:13:18

ramped up, the case against Bell

1:13:20

eventually reached the federal courts. And

1:13:22

the courts gave her a fine

1:13:24

that totaled to $410,000. The $410,000

1:13:26

divides differently. Some of it was

1:13:28

for that one week of whole

1:13:31

pantry sales that was supposed to

1:13:33

go towards the family. Other was

1:13:35

for not donating proceeds from the

1:13:37

apps launch. from a fundraising event,

1:13:39

but in total, everything came up

1:13:41

to 410. Meanwhile, Pangwin Books, who

1:13:43

had published her cookbook with about

1:13:45

verifying her claims, was also forced

1:13:47

to pay a fine of $30,000.

1:13:50

Now they paid this fine almost

1:13:52

immediately because they just wanted to

1:13:54

completely distance themselves from Bell, which

1:13:56

I don't blame them for that.

1:13:58

And by March of 2017, the

1:14:00

federal court of Australia delivered its

1:14:02

final ruling. There was no evidence

1:14:04

that Bell ever had cancer, and

1:14:06

her claims about curing it with

1:14:09

natural remedies, they were entirely false.

1:14:11

Yet, the judge noted that Bell

1:14:13

appeared to have acted out of

1:14:15

delusion rather than with criminal intent.

1:14:17

The judge said, quote, she played

1:14:19

on the empathy and generosity of

1:14:21

the Australian community. Her pitch overwhelmingly

1:14:23

used groups likely to evoke sympathy

1:14:25

because of their vulnerabilities, young girls,

1:14:28

asylum seekers, and young children. Now

1:14:30

by 2019, Belle didn't pay any

1:14:32

of her fines, still hadn't paid

1:14:34

a single cent. So she was

1:14:36

ordered to appear in court or

1:14:38

face jail time. And when she

1:14:40

finally showed up to court later

1:14:42

that year, I gotta say the

1:14:44

balls of this woman, because she

1:14:47

was wearing a brand new dress.

1:14:49

$400 St. Laurent sunglasses, all while

1:14:51

claiming she had no money and

1:14:53

that's why she couldn't pay these

1:14:55

fines. And her financial statements did

1:14:57

paint, I will say, a pretty

1:14:59

grim picture. She was nearly 170

1:15:01

grand in debt and she only

1:15:03

had $5,000 to her name. However,

1:15:06

we also know when people are

1:15:08

that savvy and when they want

1:15:10

to, they can hide money else

1:15:12

where they can park it in

1:15:14

different places and you can. look

1:15:16

like you have no money. But

1:15:18

what made this situation even more

1:15:20

confusing was that by this point,

1:15:23

Belle had also relocated to the

1:15:25

United States because she wanted to

1:15:27

get away from all the criticism

1:15:29

that was back home in Australia.

1:15:31

So now she was living in

1:15:33

LA. And she was living in

1:15:35

a very lavish home. Her son

1:15:37

was attending a private school. Her

1:15:39

partner Clive sent them on an

1:15:42

extravagant vacation to Africa. So like,

1:15:44

clearly this chick still had money.

1:15:46

Reports even revealed that between 2017

1:15:48

and 2019, Bell spent nearly $90,000

1:15:50

on designer clothing, on makeup. and

1:15:52

accessories. So hardly the habit of

1:15:54

somebody who is facing severe financial

1:15:56

distress or ruin. But like I

1:15:58

said, you can park your money

1:16:01

if you're smart enough and you

1:16:03

can make it look like you

1:16:05

have no money. It's been almost

1:16:07

two years since she was found

1:16:09

guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct

1:16:11

in order to pay $410,000. Until

1:16:13

now, Balgibson has thumbed her nose

1:16:15

at authorities and ignored that fine.

1:16:17

Today Gibson stepped into the witness

1:16:20

box. When asked about Clive Rothwell,

1:16:22

the man she's been living with

1:16:24

since 2015, she said, he's just

1:16:26

a friend. She claims he often

1:16:28

pays the $600 a week rent

1:16:30

for their North Good Home when

1:16:32

she can't afford it. When asked

1:16:34

what Clive does for work, Belle

1:16:36

said, I'm not sure. When asked

1:16:39

if she knows his income, she

1:16:41

said, it's not my business. It's

1:16:43

very old thing for saying that

1:16:45

Clive's just a friend. I think

1:16:47

everyone's got a few questions about

1:16:49

that. Do you have. Do you

1:16:51

have anything to say. Do you

1:16:53

have anything to say. A source

1:16:55

close to the family has told

1:16:58

the current affair that Belle and

1:17:00

Clive have been in a relationship

1:17:02

for years. Belle Gibson told the

1:17:04

court that she lives on sent

1:17:06

link benefits and receives child support

1:17:08

payments for her son. Just three

1:17:10

months ago a current affair caught

1:17:12

the Queen of Khan returning from

1:17:14

a luxury overseas holiday. Don't you

1:17:17

think it's more important to be

1:17:19

paying back that fine rather than

1:17:21

going on an overseas trip? Gibson

1:17:23

enjoyed a month in Kenya and

1:17:25

Ethiopia with her eight-year-old son. Belle,

1:17:27

you've scanned the people of Australia,

1:17:29

don't you have anything to say?

1:17:31

Lawyer Justin Lawrence. I think there's

1:17:33

no doubt the consumer affairs have

1:17:36

watched the story. They've looked at

1:17:38

it and they've said, maybe she's

1:17:40

got resources, maybe she's got money

1:17:42

in the bank, maybe she's got

1:17:44

access to money. We need to

1:17:46

look a bit more closely at

1:17:48

this to determine exactly what she

1:17:50

does have. because right now what

1:17:52

we know is she hasn't paid

1:17:55

a cent to anybody yet she's

1:17:57

traveling over the other side of

1:17:59

the world potentially spending tens of

1:18:01

thousands of dollars on expensive holidays.

1:18:03

The East African safari and flights

1:18:05

were a big focus of today.

1:18:07

day's examination, Gibson telling the court

1:18:09

the trip was a gift from

1:18:11

Clive with an estimated price tag

1:18:14

of $5,000. When asked how Clive

1:18:16

paid for it, Gibson said, I

1:18:18

don't know. Another hot topic was

1:18:20

Gibson's choice of wardrobe. So in

1:18:22

2020, with no resolution in sight,

1:18:24

the Sheriff's Office in Australia decided

1:18:26

to take action. They ended up

1:18:28

raiding her property, and when they

1:18:31

did that, they seized belongings of

1:18:33

hers that would cover the amount

1:18:35

of fines that she still owed,

1:18:37

which also, thanks to accumulating interest,

1:18:39

she now owed over half a

1:18:41

million dollars. But even with this

1:18:43

raid by the sheriff's office, Bell's

1:18:45

financial situation remained unresolved. By 2021,

1:18:47

she still hadn't paid off any

1:18:50

of her fines, and by May

1:18:52

21st of that year, the authorities

1:18:54

ended up raiding her home once

1:18:56

again. But to this day, Belle

1:18:58

still has not paid her fines.

1:19:00

And that to me just shows

1:19:02

she has no remorse for what

1:19:04

she's done. Not even trying to

1:19:06

be remorseful. She doesn't care. And

1:19:09

that also takes me back to,

1:19:11

I think this was done with

1:19:13

criminal intent, even though the judge

1:19:15

ruled as delusion, no, this is

1:19:17

calculated. This is gross. This is

1:19:19

like, I don't like it. It

1:19:21

feels disgusting. At this point, she

1:19:23

also pretty much vanished from the

1:19:25

public eye. She briefly reappeared in

1:19:28

2020, sparking a fresh wave of

1:19:30

controversy. Videos emerged showing her claiming

1:19:32

that she had now been adopted

1:19:34

by a local Ethiopian community, and

1:19:36

she even appeared in a video

1:19:38

referring to Ethiopia as, quote, being

1:19:40

back home. Presently, when you speak

1:19:42

to those back home, people are

1:19:44

being arrested, people are being shot

1:19:47

in the in the street because

1:19:49

of their oromo identity. You know,

1:19:51

like the madness that is happening

1:19:53

in the last week. came as

1:19:55

a complete shock to everybody. Abi

1:19:57

has a chance to change this.

1:19:59

He has a chance to liberate

1:20:01

the entire nation of Ethiopia. Not

1:20:03

just one... subsection of the country.

1:20:06

He has a chance to unify

1:20:08

everyone. The eyes of the world

1:20:10

are watching him especially after he

1:20:12

won the Nobel Peace Prize. Everyone

1:20:14

is looking and only after a

1:20:16

few days of accepting this. We've

1:20:18

got almost a civil war breaking

1:20:20

up. People are looking. He has

1:20:22

a chance to change this but

1:20:25

we are losing faith that that's

1:20:27

his intention. All right, thanks

1:20:29

to Bunto and so today, you

1:20:31

know, that's what the oldest in

1:20:34

the Oromo community gathered together to

1:20:36

have a chat about what's going

1:20:38

on in the Oromia and they

1:20:41

want to support people that who's

1:20:43

been injured and then who's been

1:20:45

arrested or like someone who's going

1:20:48

through hard time at the moment

1:20:50

in Oromia. So like, do you

1:20:52

have any advice for Oromo people

1:20:54

that are around the world? My

1:20:57

advice is in line without hero

1:20:59

Joea. You know. Let's look to

1:21:01

the Jhasa, just like the Ghata

1:21:04

system teaches us, like our forefathers

1:21:06

have taught us, like our leaders

1:21:08

are telling us now, conduct yourself

1:21:11

with Samafu, hold yourself, don't make

1:21:13

it worse for our people at

1:21:15

this time, defend yourselves and defend

1:21:18

your honor, defend your identity. She

1:21:21

insisted on being called Sabon 2

1:21:23

and she appeared in these videos

1:21:25

attending community events, weddings, meetings, and

1:21:27

just casual neighborhood barbecues. It was

1:21:29

almost like she was now once

1:21:31

again embracing an entirely new identity.

1:21:33

However, this community's warm welcome, it

1:21:35

was short-lived because once these videos

1:21:37

circulated, all of these concerned locals

1:21:40

began receiving messages from outsiders warning

1:21:42

them about Belle about her lies,

1:21:44

her notorious past, her history of

1:21:46

using people. So the community, already

1:21:48

kind of confused about where Belle

1:21:50

came from, they grew increasingly suspicious.

1:21:52

Initially, the group's leader had assumed

1:21:54

that Belle might... simply be a

1:21:56

girlfriend or a relative of one

1:21:58

of the members. But then as

1:22:00

time went on, Bell's behavior raised

1:22:03

even more red flags because she

1:22:05

started asking community members questions about

1:22:07

their personal financial situations. So these

1:22:09

questions combined with the warnings from

1:22:11

outsiders convinced this Ethiopian community that

1:22:13

something just was not right here

1:22:15

with Bell. So in a move

1:22:17

to protect their group, the leaders

1:22:19

expelled Belle. They barred her from

1:22:21

any future events. They were like,

1:22:24

no, get out of here, good

1:22:26

riddens. Soon after that, her relationship

1:22:28

with Clive also started to unravel.

1:22:30

Though, the full details, they remain

1:22:32

a little bit unknown. Clive has

1:22:34

been by her side through all

1:22:36

of the ups and downs, living

1:22:38

with her, supporting her even raising

1:22:40

her son, their son, all of

1:22:42

her together. Some people theorized that

1:22:45

he was well aware of the

1:22:47

inconsistencies in Belle. at the coattails

1:22:49

of all of her success. While

1:22:51

others believe that his deep bond

1:22:53

that he shares with Oliver is

1:22:55

what led him to suppress his

1:22:57

doubts, all in order to maintain

1:22:59

stability for the family and for

1:23:01

Oliver who he treats as his

1:23:03

own son. Now even as the

1:23:05

layers of her and her personal

1:23:08

life and her lies and everything

1:23:10

she did, the deception, even as

1:23:12

those layers are peeled back, the

1:23:14

true motivations behind Belle's elaborate web

1:23:16

of lies, it's still a mystery,

1:23:18

right? Why did she lie? I

1:23:20

think it was for attention, and

1:23:22

then when she started realizing she

1:23:24

could get even more attention with

1:23:26

a book with this and that

1:23:29

and started to see the influx

1:23:31

of money, I think then it

1:23:33

became more financially motivated. But I

1:23:35

don't think that it stems from

1:23:37

that. I don't think the root

1:23:39

was for money. I think it

1:23:41

truly was for attention and maybe

1:23:43

even acceptance, which is kind of

1:23:45

sad, but... Also kind of desperately

1:23:47

not a good enough excuse to

1:23:49

do what she had done. Now

1:23:52

some people believe that her entire

1:23:54

act was an attempt to emulate

1:23:56

another Australian wellness creator named Jess.

1:23:58

Jess had already made a name

1:24:00

for herself by documenting her own

1:24:02

battle with cancer and also by,

1:24:04

you know, speaking out in support

1:24:06

of alternative therapy. like gerson therapy

1:24:08

and coffee enamas and all of

1:24:10

that. Now, although it wasn't brain

1:24:13

cancer, unlike Bell, Jess actually faced

1:24:15

a rare aggressive form of skin

1:24:17

cancer, which even led doctors to

1:24:19

recommend amputating her arm. But Jess

1:24:21

chose to fight back with alternative

1:24:23

treatments, and she shared every raw

1:24:25

detail of her journey online, even

1:24:27

announcing that her mother had been

1:24:29

diagnosed with breast cancer and was

1:24:31

following the same treatment plan as

1:24:33

she was. a completely natural treatment

1:24:36

modality that involves loading the body

1:24:38

up with all the nutrients it

1:24:40

needs to heal and detoxifying it

1:24:42

of everything that is getting in

1:24:44

the way of healing. And so

1:24:46

I went over to Mexico with

1:24:48

my mom and I spent three

1:24:50

weeks at the Gerson Clinic learning

1:24:52

how to implement this therapy in

1:24:54

my life. It was 13 glasses

1:24:57

of fresh organic veggies every day,

1:24:59

one on the hour from the

1:25:01

moment you wake up to the

1:25:03

moment you go to bed. It's...

1:25:05

Completely overhauling your diet to eat

1:25:07

three massive all-organic vegan meals that

1:25:09

have no salt, no sugar, no

1:25:11

fat, no spices, no herbs, no

1:25:13

caffeine, no drugs, no alcohol. Everything

1:25:15

that was a staple of my

1:25:17

diet for the first 22 years

1:25:20

was gone and replaced by plants

1:25:22

and juice. And then there was

1:25:24

the castoril, which we had to

1:25:26

drink orally every second day. to

1:25:28

clean out that small intestines, to

1:25:30

give us the runs and make

1:25:32

us feel like we have a

1:25:34

hangover every second day. And then

1:25:36

there was my favorite part of

1:25:38

the whole therapy, which was the

1:25:41

coffee enemies, and putting five buckets

1:25:43

of coffee up my bottom every

1:25:45

single day. It seriously is the

1:25:47

best part. You get 30 minutes

1:25:49

alone to yourself in the bathroom

1:25:51

five times a day. It's great.

1:25:54

And I did all of this religiously

1:25:56

for two whole years dedicated every waking

1:25:58

hour. to saving my own life. And

1:26:00

I did this because very early on

1:26:02

in my journey I called up one

1:26:05

of the counselors at the Gawler Foundation

1:26:07

and I was really probing her about

1:26:09

Ian's story and how he did it.

1:26:11

And the one thing that she said

1:26:13

to me that really stuck with me

1:26:15

through all of it was that everything

1:26:18

that you do needs to be to

1:26:20

heal your body. Every single thing, every

1:26:22

act that you take, it needs to

1:26:24

be in the act of healing your

1:26:26

body. Be radically kind to yourselves. be

1:26:28

brave enough to follow your intuition, even

1:26:30

when it's really, really scary, and always,

1:26:33

always be really well. Thank you so

1:26:35

much for hearing me speak. And thank

1:26:37

you so much to Ian. Eventually, Jess's

1:26:39

mom passed away in 2013, and after

1:26:41

her mom died, Jess began to realize

1:26:43

that her holistic treatments just were not

1:26:46

working. So then she tried to seek

1:26:48

conventional medical care, but unfortunately it was

1:26:50

too late. The cancer had spread throughout

1:26:52

her entire body and it could no

1:26:54

longer respond to treatment. So Jess herself

1:26:56

passed away in 2015, around seven years

1:26:58

after she was initially diagnosed with cancer.

1:27:01

So there are reports that Belle even

1:27:03

showed up to Jess's funeral, even though

1:27:05

she was never invited. But Belle always

1:27:07

tried to make it seem like to

1:27:09

the outside world that she was good

1:27:11

friends with Jess. Yet they didn't know

1:27:14

each other very well at all. They

1:27:16

just happened to run in the same

1:27:18

internet circles, the same wellness circles. And

1:27:20

at the funeral, in true Bell Fashion,

1:27:22

she tried to make it all about

1:27:24

herself. She was wailing, she was crying,

1:27:26

so loudly, so much that people couldn't

1:27:29

even concentrate on the service that was

1:27:31

happening. A lot of people think that

1:27:33

all of her outrageous lies are basically

1:27:35

like I said just to cry for

1:27:37

attention. Friends have always said that she

1:27:39

was an attention seeker, even from a

1:27:41

very young age. And that if she

1:27:44

was never the center of conversation, she

1:27:46

would just come up with like crazy

1:27:48

stories and crazy lies to stay in

1:27:50

the spotlight. Some even suggested that she

1:27:52

might suffer from having munch housins, which

1:27:54

basically is when somebody delib- exaggerates or

1:27:57

makes up symptoms to get sympathy or

1:27:59

makes themselves sick. In the end, whether

1:28:01

it was an attempt to copy Jess

1:28:03

because of the attention Jess was getting

1:28:05

and the accolades that Jess was getting

1:28:07

or just this constant need for validation

1:28:09

or I don't know, something maybe even

1:28:12

deeper. The real reasons behind Bell's elaborate

1:28:14

lies and this hoax still remain unclear.

1:28:16

And like I said, that Netflix show,

1:28:18

Apple Cite or Vinegar, it doesn't always

1:28:20

clear things up. It kind of invents

1:28:22

characters and storylines for the show that

1:28:25

are like true, ish, but not all

1:28:27

true. And they don't really match reality.

1:28:29

There are lists online of all the

1:28:31

differences between the show and what actually

1:28:33

happened, which you can look up. But

1:28:35

one example is that in Apple Citer,

1:28:37

there is a character who is loosely

1:28:40

depicted and based on Jess, the actual

1:28:42

young woman who died from cancer. And

1:28:44

her family is not happy with how

1:28:46

in the Netflix dramatization, this character is

1:28:48

depicted as sort of like this jealous

1:28:50

rival with Belle. There was never any

1:28:53

jealousy like that. There was never any

1:28:55

sort of rivalry. So again, they base

1:28:57

it loosely on a story, but then

1:28:59

they exaggerate certain storylines to enhance the

1:29:01

interest, the production value, all of those

1:29:03

things. And Chanel, the friend who initially

1:29:05

confronted Belle about her lies and called

1:29:08

her out and then even went to

1:29:10

the press and to law enforcement about

1:29:12

these lies, she has issues with the

1:29:14

show as well. I haven't filmed something

1:29:16

like this before and it's not something

1:29:18

that comes very naturally to put myself

1:29:21

out here like this, but I wanted

1:29:23

to say thank you to everyone who

1:29:25

sent kind messages and support after watching

1:29:27

the Netflix show or learning about this

1:29:29

story. I also wanted to say that

1:29:31

I had nothing to do with the

1:29:33

Netflix show and I don't entirely feel

1:29:36

comfortable around some of the ethics of

1:29:38

this type of storytelling and how the

1:29:40

truth has been distorted in the show.

1:29:42

and I just really hope that the

1:29:44

core important messages about this story isn't

1:29:46

lost through the glamourisation of this show

1:29:49

and just to remember that there's been

1:29:51

really vulnerable people in real life that

1:29:53

have been impacted by this. So I

1:29:55

guess that kind of brings a bigger

1:29:57

question into play here and I'm curious

1:29:59

to know what your thoughts are. Is

1:30:01

it okay for a true crime drama

1:30:04

to change a few details here and

1:30:06

there or exaggerate certain things to make

1:30:08

it more compelling of a story? Or

1:30:10

is that just adding another layer of

1:30:12

confusion and lies on top of a

1:30:14

story that's already about lies and deception?

1:30:16

because then the viewer takes it at

1:30:19

face value and thinks it's all true.

1:30:21

I don't know. I also want to

1:30:23

know what you think Bell's true motive

1:30:25

was in all of this and she

1:30:27

still hasn't paid any fines. Was her

1:30:29

punishment enough? Probably not because she didn't

1:30:32

even pay anything. She wasn't even punished.

1:30:34

She was punished on a piece of

1:30:36

paper but like there was no punishment

1:30:38

because she hasn't paid her fines. So...

1:30:40

Did she learn her lesson? I don't

1:30:42

think so. She once again changed her

1:30:44

identity and morphed into somebody else in

1:30:47

Ethiopia. Like, what's going on? What is

1:30:49

going on? I don't know. I'm still

1:30:51

diving into this because like, I think

1:30:53

it's only a matter of time before

1:30:55

Bell speaks out. And you know what

1:30:57

I would love? I'm just thinking of

1:31:00

this now. I don't know how much

1:31:02

people pay for interviews. I think I

1:31:04

remember hearing that the 60 minutes interview,

1:31:06

they paid her like $70. have a

1:31:08

lot of money at their disposal, like

1:31:10

maybe not this amount of money, but

1:31:12

how awesome would it be? And this

1:31:15

is maybe a call to action. So

1:31:17

if you agree with me on this,

1:31:19

share this episode and tag these people.

1:31:21

But what if like Good Morning America

1:31:23

came out and said, you know what,

1:31:25

Belle, we are going to pay you.

1:31:28

$410,000. All of the money that you

1:31:30

owe in these fines to pay back

1:31:32

these promises to do all this stuff,

1:31:34

we're going to pay you that if

1:31:36

you come on and do an interview

1:31:38

with us right now. Clear all this

1:31:40

up, let's talk and we'll pay that.

1:31:43

Or even better, we'll pay you $100

1:31:45

grand to do the interview and we'll

1:31:47

also pay all of your fines for

1:31:49

you directly so that you can be

1:31:51

absolved and free of this whole headache

1:31:53

just come doing it. interview. Now that

1:31:56

I say that out loud I get

1:31:58

that it might be controversial because she

1:32:00