What to Know About the True Story Behind ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’

From Anatomy of Lies to Scamanda, TV shows about people caught faking illnesses are all the rage right now. And the trend continues with Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar, premiering on Thursday, February 6.

“Set at the birth of Instagram, Apple Cider Vinegar follows two young women who set out to cure their life-threatening illnesses through health and wellness, influencing their global online communities along the way. All of which would be incredibly inspiring if it were all true,” Netflix says in a synopsis of the six-episode series. “This is a true-ish story based on a lie, about the rise and fall of a wellness empire; the culture that built it up and the people who tore it down.”

And one of those two women is a fictionalized take on Belle Gibson, whose wellness business came crashing down a decade ago…

What is the story behind Apple Cider Vinegar? Who is Belle Gibson?

Apple Cider Vinegar is inspired by the book The Woman Who Fooled the World: The True Story of Fake Wellness Guru Belle Gibson by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, two journalists for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Gibson is an Australian mother, an influencer, the author of the cookbook The Whole Pantry, and the social media entrepreneur behind an app of the same name. She rose to fame in the early 2010s with claims that she was curing her case of terminal brain cancer with nutritional eating and natural therapies, according to The Australian Women’s Weekly.

In a 2015 interview with The Weekly, however, Gibson admitted her story — including her cancer diagnosis — was a lie. “None of it’s true,” she said at the time. “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.’”

Amid the scandal, Apple dropped her app, Penguin Australia stopped supplying her book, and in 2017, the Federal Court of Australia found Belle guilty of engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct, and she was fined $410,000, according to The Weekly.

Donelly and Toscano’s book detailed Gibson’s fall from grace in 2018. Publishers Weekly called the book a “fascinating and thoroughly reported tale” that “will have readers casting a gimlet eye on both the wellness industry and social media.” It’s also an “excoriating attack on the charlatanism of ‘wellness warriors,’” according to The Mail on Sunday, and it “bracingly retells a memorable chapter in the history of human folly,” per the Sunday Morning Post.

Where is Gibson now?

Gibson has been mostly off the radar lately. She did pop up in a 2020 video, in which she claimed to be an adopted member of Melbourne’s Oromo people, going by the name Sabontu and calling Ethiopia her home. Dr. Tarekegn Chimdi, described by The Weekly as head of Melbourne’s Ethiopian community, told the publication that Gibson was “exploiting the good heart of the people in our community” who “did not know what evil she was carrying.”

Authorities raided Gibson’s house in Melbourne twice — once in 2020 and again the following year — in efforts to recoup more than $500,000 in outstanding fines, penalties, and interest, as Australia’s ABC News reported at the time. Gibson previously claimed to be unable to pay the fines, but an analysis by the local consumer affairs bureau reported that she had spent $91,000 between 2017 and 2019, including $13,000 on clothes, cosmetics, and accessories, according to the Australian Associated Press.

As of February 2024, Gibson’s entire fine was unpaid, according to the Nine Network program A Current Affair. When a reporter for the program caught up with Gibson at a gas station, she said, “I haven’t paid things because I can’t afford to.”

Who’s behind the TV show?

Samantha Strauss (Dance Academy) created Apple Cider Vinegar and wrote the miniseries alongside Anya Beyersdorf (Fake) and Angela Betzien (Total Control). Jeffrey Walker (The Artful Dodger) directed all six episodes.

Kaitlyn Dever (Unbelievable), an executive producer on the project, plays Gibson, while Alycia Debnam-Carey (Fear the Walking Dead) plays Milla, a rival wellness influencer. Aisha Dee (The Bold Type) plays Chanelle, a friend of Milla who helps Belle grow her business, while Tilda Cobham-Hervey (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart) plays Lucy, a cancer patient influenced by Belle and Milla’s claims.

“What we’ve tried to do in this series is to show that none of these issues are entirely black and white — we wanted it to live in the grey zone,” Strauss told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s about showing what it’s like to be a young woman coping with the weightiest issues — life and death — but also staying open to the humor in the hardest moments.”

Executive producers Liz Watts and Louise Gough added that Strauss “has created a series that is searing in its comment but entertaining at its very core. It’s complex, it’s got bounce, and it’s got bite, and we love it.”

Apple Cider Vinegar, Thursday, February 6, Netflix

From TV Guide Magazine

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