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A new ITV documentary, Instagram's Worst Con Artist, will explore the life of Belle Gibson, an Australian Instagram wellness influencer. She fooled thousands of people on social media by pretending to have terminal brain cancer.
The two-part documentary, broadcasting on ITV1 at 9 pm on April 25 and May 2, will feature never-before-seen interviews from her friends and family that detail her scam.
In 2013, Belle Gibson amassed a huge internet following after she posted about her miraculous cancer recovery on Instagram. The influencer claimed to have reportedly renounced traditional treatments and instead cured herself by following alternative treatments and healthy diets.
Two years later, her lies unravelled as her cancer diagnosis was revealed to be a sham. Following the fallout of her scam, Belle Gibson still lives in the Melbourne area and all her social media accounts have been deactivated.
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A timeline of Belle Gibson's fall from grace
Belle Gibson's story chronicles an inspiring tale of a young woman from Launceston, Tasmania, overcoming cancer. According to The Standard, Gibson's web of lies began when she claimed that she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in July 2009.
She detailed the incident of her allegedly receiving the shocking news in her book The Whole Pantry, claiming that the doctor told her—
“You’re dying. You have six weeks. Four months tops.”
Belle Gibson then claimed that she allegedly spent two months in chemotherapy, before switching to a more non-conventional and holistic treatment. It included a plant-based diet, which she alleged miraculously cured her cancer and even saw her have her first child at the age of 18.
Writing in her book, she claimed to be "empowering" herself to save her life through "nutrition, patience, determination and love."
As per The Mirror, Belle Gibson launched her Instagram profile @healing_belle in early 2013 when she was 21, where she raised awareness about her journey through cancer. In an age where wellness and superfoods were gaining traction, Gibson soon amassed a following of 200,000, which gave her the platform to launch her own wellness app called The Whole Pantry that same year.
The app was named Apple’s Best Food and Drink App of 2013. Capitalising on her success, Belle Gibson signed a £220,000 book deal with Penguin Random House and launched her cookbook, also titled The Whole Pantry in October 2014, to promote a "well-nourished life". In 2015, the book was withdrawn from publication after the news of author's scam broke.
Banking on her followers' sympathy, Belle Gibson alleged that her cancer had returned. In July 2014, she posted on Instagram—
“I have cancer in my blood, spleen, brain, uterus and liver. I am hurting … I wanted to respectfully let you each know, and hand some of the energy over to the greater community, my team and @thewholepantry … Please don’t carry my pain. I’ve got this.”
Following this revelation, her popularity further grew and she was honored with the "Fun Fearless Female" award by Cosmopolitan in late 2014. She also partnered with Apple to release her app on the newly designed Apple Watch.
In 2015, people grew suspicious of her stories after she pledged to make donations to charity but never followed through. This revelation, made by Fairfax Media in March, saw the tides turn against her.
Journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano began to dig deep into her fabricated story, which they detailed in their book The Woman Who Fooled the World. In an interview in Australia Women’s Weekly in April 2015, Belle Gibson finally came clean and admitted her deception, saying—
“No… None of it’s true. I don’t want forgiveness. I just think [speaking out] was the responsible thing to do. Above anything, I would like people to say, ‘Okay, she’s human. She’s obviously had a big life. She’s respectfully come to the table and said what she’s needed to say, and now it’s time for her to grow and heal.'”
In 2017, Belle Gibson was ordered to pay £240,000 worth of fines as dues for profiting off of her deception. By 2019, it was revealed that she still hadn't paid the fine.
PShe alleged she did not have the means to pay it back, despite lavishly spending her wealth on shopping sprees, five-week safaris and trips to Bali and Africa in those two years.
Her home was raided two times, once in January 2020 and once in May 2021. Video footage procured during the first raid showed that Gibson claimed she had been adopted by the Ethiopian Oromo community in Victoria, Melbourne, and had changed her name to Sabontu.
However, this claim was later refuted by Tarekegn Chimdia, the president of the Australian Oromo Community Association in Victoria. To date, Belle Gibson, now 32, is still located in the Melbourne area.
