An Australian wellness blogger who built a wildly successful business on claims that she healed terminal brain cancer has admitted she never had it.
Belle Gibson, 23, founded “The Whole Pantry” global business, including a best-seller app and cookbook, and told a huge following on social media that she cured her cancer through healthy eating and natural therapies.
"No … None of it's true," she told the Australian Women’s Weekly. "I am still jumping between what I think I know and what is reality. I have lived it and I'm not really there yet."
It was revealed in March that Gibson had been raising funds on the behalf of five charities which had no record of receiving a donation from her.
In March, her recipe book was withdrawn by Penguin and her app was removed by Apple from its store.
The Weekly journalist Clair Weaver, who interviewed her twice, revealed what went on behind the scenes, saying she found Gibson to be a frustrating interview subject, who was unable to provide names, dates and locations and whose behaviour sometimes seemed illogical.
“It is hard to get the measure of Belle Gibson. At first, she seems gullible, muddled and emotional. She tells stories that are frustratingly vague, unverifiable and sometimes far-fetched”.
“Belle appears unworldly yet claims to have left home at 12 and lived independently ever since. As a child, she says her mother changed her name five times for reasons she doesn’t comprehend. The Weekly was unable to find anyone who knew her or her family before her teenage years to check this — and Belle herself was unwilling to assist on this.”
Woman's Weekly speculated that she might be suffering from a psychological disorder or Munchausen syndrome in which people seek attention by faking having diseases.
