All language subtitles for Bad.Influencer.The.Great.Insta.Con.2021.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

This programme deals with
Eating Disorders

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In August 2013, Belle Gibson
launched The Whole Pantry,

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a book, an app, and a website,

in which she claimed that healthy
eating had cured her condition.

It was five years ago I was
diagnosed with terminal cancer.

It's been hard.

Belle Gibson was the Queen Bee
of Wellness.

People worshipped her.

I was deeply invested
in what she was saying,

because it was just
such an amazing story.

This is the story of the rise
and fall of one of Instagram's first

super influencers,
told by those she influenced...

Maybe SHE'S got the right idea,
maybe I'M doing it all wrong.

I'm dying, and she's out there,
living her best life.

...and those who sought the truth.

I just was immediately suspicious
about her claim

about this brain tumour.

You just don't live with something
like that for five years,

without having
some kind of treatment.

I am not lying.

He definitely told me that
my brain tumour is still present,

and that I have
new and secondary cancers.

In 2013, the world first met
wellness influencer Belle Gibson,

who attracted a huge global online
following with her brave story.

A young, beautiful woman
gets given the terrible news

she has inoperable brain cancer,
and only four months to live.

The courageous Belle Gibson tries
chemotherapy, but no luck,

so turns to alternative medicine
to battle the disease.

Belle shared her incredible story,

of living for years
with terminal cancer, on Instagram.

Her adoring audience was inspired
by her every post.

It looked like, even if you weren't
going through cancer treatment,

that you would still want to
live that lifestyle.

Everything was bright and glossy.
An amazing style about her

that was very engaging and
very appealing.

It just all looked great.

I was in complete awe of this woman.

She was incredibly open and honest.

She was unafraid to be vulnerable

and be very explicit
about her experience.

She had this incredible story that
was something that I could perhaps

relate to, in a way,
with my own health issues.

She took her own wellbeing
into her hands, and it worked,

and she transformed her life
from it.

When Maxine Ali began
secondary school,

she was diagnosed with the chronic
illness ulcerative colitis.

I got so unwell that, eventually,

I wasn't able to go to school
any more,

I wasn't able to participate
in the normal things

that most 12-year-olds are doing
at that time.

Immediately after I was diagnosed,

I was put on a whole bunch
of medication, including steroids.

I kind of experienced some of
the physical side effects

that come from steroids,
such as weight gain, erm,

bloating of the face,

and when I was eventually
well enough to go back to school,

my physical appearance had changed
quite considerably.

All of my friends no longer
wanted to be seen with me,

or associated with me, because I was
the weird one that stuck out.

The way I was being treated
while I was on medication

was so unbearable for me
that I decided to stop

using conventional medicine,
and try and find a natural way

to heal myself.

Seeing someone like Belle
heal themselves through food

made me feel hopeful, it made me
feel like this was the answer

to everything
that I had been looking for.

The foundations of Belle's
radical approach,

healing illness through diet,
were laid over 50 years ago.

There's a word you don't hear
every day.

It means exactly
what you might think it means -

the opposite of illness.

It's a movement that is catching on
all over the country,

among doctors, nurses and others
concerned with medical care.

Wellness is really the ultimate
in something called self-care,

in which patients are taught
to diagnose common illnesses,

and, where possible,
to treat themselves.

Wellness was born in 1960s
California, where a generation

of young Americans experimented
with Eastern mysticism,

mind-expanding drugs, and
back-to-nature living.

In wellness, you are the leader.

You're your own guru,
and you're the perfect person

that is trying to make your life
better and more full.

Before long, wellness shed
its alternative roots,

growing with exercise fads,
spa tourism and diet crazes.

Wellness had reached the mainstream.

Alongside attempts to encourage
all of us to look after our health

a little better is a booming
wellness industry,

claimed to be worth $4.2 trillion
a year.

Wellness found a home on social
media, encouraged by celebrities,

who posted their aspirational
lifestyles,

full of wellness practices.

What if I told you the best place
to begin is within?

It was at this point that Belle
started posting

about her wellness journey.

I get out of bed for what we do.

We really believe
that we're changing people's lives.

We just want to go, hey, maybe eat,
you know, some more fruits

and vegetables, move your body
a little more,

drink a little bit more water.

Inspired by Belle,

Pixie Turner took to Instagram
to spread the wellness message.

Everyone was using overhead shots,
so I did the same...

...and the more I did that,
the more it paid off.

And then I'd spend the next hour
just refreshing

and refreshing Instagram,
watching the likes come in.

I loved getting all those likes.

The first time I got over a thousand
likes on a picture,

I was so happy.

Pixie's wellness journey began
when she was advised to see

a cardiologist, following
a health scare in the family.

When I was 19 years old,

I was told that my cholesterol
was too high,

I should follow some lifestyle
changes, if I wanted to,

and come back in a year.

If it was still high,
I would have to go on statins

for the rest of my life.

I did not want to do that.

I went and did the most obvious
thing to me, at the time.

I went straight to Dr Google,
started typing.

I found Belle Gibson,
and this wellness community,

that was very focused
on taking charge of your own health.

It was very empowering,

and on top of that,
it was very visually appealing.

And in between that, there were
these pictures of these people

who looked so healthy,
and happy, and shiny,

and if I need to eat that food
to look like that,

I'm going to do it.

Like hundreds of thousands
of others, Pixie and Maxine

started using the first wellness app
in the world, The Whole Pantry,

designed by Belle Gibson.

It was offering this kind of
tool kit for people

to follow her lifestyle.

So there were these really,
really stunning recipes.

There was something very serene
about the app.

I hadn't seen anyone do anything
like that,

and, to me, I saw that as just
a continuation of her wanting

to share something with the world
that was valuable,

and that people wanted.

I saw it as very selfless for her
to share all of this with people.

I thought she must be
a really kind person.

Belle Gibson is a mother,
a businesswoman,

and she's also living
with brain cancer.

I mean, why this app?

When Belle went on breakfast TV
to promote the app,

she was admired by the hosts.

And you're quite inspirational.

I wouldn't mind betting that that's
a fair bit behind all of this,

as well...

They were visibly moved
by her seemingly inspiring story.

We really believe that we've
revolutionised, erm, something

that people are becoming
increasingly interested

and invested in,
which is health and wellness.

For a person living
with brain cancer,

might I add,
you look incredibly healthy.

Having funded the award-winning app
herself,

now Apple invited Belle
to California.

They wanted to adapt
The Whole Pantry for their

soon-to-be-launched Apple Watch.

It was five years ago I was
diagnosed with terminal cancer,

and we launched The Whole Pantry
a year ago.

That evolution came through
my community.

They kept reaching out to me,
saying, you know,

how are we going to, you know,
live the whole life

without resources, or without
something pulling that all together?

So that was my responsibility.

The Whole Pantry was about
more than just healthy living.

It was also about giving back.

A portion of each app sale was
donated to charitable causes

Belle was passionate about.

We really believe that
we're changing people's lives,

and we have a giving-back end
of the company as well,

with your app download transfers
into community donation,

so that's everything from funding
medical support for children

that are living with cancer,
to building schools in Sierra Leone.

It just reinforced what I already
knew about her,

which is that she is selfless,

she's not doing this
for her own personal gain,

she's trying to help people,

and this was just another
way of her doing that.

In Belle's hometown of Melbourne,
mum-of-three Kylie Wyllie

had a successful
personal training business.

I was getting ready for
my best friend's wedding.

I was maid of honour,

so there was lots of excitement
around that.

I had had some chest pain,
which was unusual.

My husband and friend talked me
into going to the doctor,

to have it investigated.

So I went down to the local centre,
and I had a scan,

and the first one was just
an ultrasound of my armpits,

and I had MRIs and CT scans.

I was driving to the rehearsal
dinner, and the doctor called me,

and she said, "I need you to come
in to, come in to the clinic

"and see me". I said,
"Well, it's just not possible,

"I'll have to see you on Monday.
I can't come in".

And she said, "Well, I hate
to do this over the phone,

"but you have lymphoma.

"You have cancer".

We got through the wedding,
and the whole time, I just remember

being in this surreal, like,
"Holy shit!"

Like, "How is this, like, my,
my life right now?

"Like, what,
what's going to happen?"

And that night, on the Sunday,

the lymph nodes had enlarged
so much,

I was having trouble breathing,

cos they were pushing up pressure
on my neck.

I couldn't lift my arms up,

and so I was taken via ambulance
to the Alfred Hospital,

where I started treatment.

I guess the reality really set in
about the severity of the diagnosis

is when the doctor said to me,

"You need to get
your affairs in order".

And I remember looking at him,
thinking, you have to be kidding.

I was diagnosed, like,
five seconds ago.

How are you even, how am
I down for the count already?

Like, give me a chance
to fight it first.

After six months of treatment
in hospital,

Kylie's health wasn't improving.

I was having daily chemo,
I had no hair,

and I'd had 17 lumbar punctures.

I was like, you're not making me
better, you're making me worse.

You're killing me.
Like, why am I even doing this?

My beautiful girlfriend, Suzy, came
to visit me, and she said to me,

"Have you heard about this girl,
Belle Gibson?"

"She's got brain cancer, and,
you know, she's doing really well".

OK, this is interesting.

Maybe SHE'S got the right idea,
maybe I'M doing it all wrong.

I'm dying on the inside, getting
worse with every single treatment,

I look horrendous,

and she's out there,
living her best life.

Interested in finding out
more about her lifestyle,

Kylie bought Belle's newly released
wellness book.

So, in the front page of the book,
Belle writes about her own story.

"I pulled myself out of chemo
and radiotherapy.

"My doctors freaked out,
but they couldn't stop me.

"I was empowering myself
to save my own life

"through nutrition, patience,
determination and love".

I wanted to be just like Belle,
beautiful,

and she was successful,

she was inspiring to so many people.

She was what the ultimate goal was,

to be like Belle Gibson.

Now, we've forgiven the avocado
for its high fat content,

and deemed it a superfood.

But can the food we eat
really clean our bodies

and make us feel well?

With her book and app,
Belle advocated clean eating

to help heal the body,
which meant restricting your diet.

Clean eating was a phrase
that the wellness community

really latched on to,
and really used a lot,

the idea that we needed to clean up
the way that we were eating.

I mean, everyone knows
that vegetables are good for you,

fruit is good for you,
plants are good for you.

It made sense, the idea
that all these processed foods,

and these various ingredients
that we were eating

were not good for us.

It was so simple
and it made so much sense.

In pursuit of clean eating,

Pixie's diet became
more and more restricted.

So in my fridge now,
I've got various animal products,

things that I definitely
would not have eaten,

anything with any kind of meat
in it.

Definitely not. Er, we've got pasta,
that's got gluten.

Hell no. That's not allowed.
No way.

Anything with dairy, so, you know,
whether that is, that's cream,

it's cheese, cream cheese,
hard cheese, soft cheese.

None of this is OK.
All of this has gone.

I mean, it seems harmless,
but because it's prepared,

and it's in a package,
I would not have eaten this.

Also this one has cream in it,
so definitely a big no-no.

And, on paper, someone might say,
you know, that seems really healthy,

like, that, to me, is the epitome
of, like, a healthy thing.

It's got more than five ingredients.

That means it's processed,
and you're not allowed it.

And what's the idea behind that?

Someone on the internet made it up,
and it became a thing.

Because the idea is,
if it has five or more ingredients,

it's probably a processed food,
and therefore it's a bad food,

because it's processed.

And, finally,

we have wine.

Alcohol wasn't really a thing
of wellness,

because it's completely
devoid of nutrients,

and also, when you drink wine,
or you drink alcohol,

it doesn't allow you to wake up
feeling fresh the next morning,

ready to have your,
you know, your spin class,

and your smoothie for breakfast.

I mean, I was at the end
of my first year of uni

when I got into wellness,

so whilst a lot of my friends
and colleagues were going out

and drinking, I was only,
only very occasionally

going along with them,
and I wouldn't drink that much.

Usually something really simple,
not wine.

After nine months of chemotherapy,

Kylie was struggling to cope with
treatment for her lymphoma.

I'd had enough of all of the poking
and prodding and the constant scans.

I wasn't getting any better.

I was getting worse.

I was done and...

...I can remember my husband, you
know, waking me up

to take me to The Alfred and he
would get up before me.

He would put my pillow in the car,
my blanket,

then he would wake me last minute
and take me.

And I sat at the door of the
house.

I'm just like, "I'm done. I'm not
doing it.

"I'm not going any more. I do not
want another lumbar puncture.

"I don't want it. We need to talk
about other treatments.

"I can't do this any more."

The chemo wasn't for me. It wasn't
working for me

that I should come off it and try,
you know, the clean eating.

I was desperate. My life had totally
changed

and she appeared to be doing
everything right.

And I felt like I was doing
everything wrong.

I felt like I was sucked into this
process

that wasn't working for me.

So I felt like,

"No, I need to give this a go to see
if this works."

She was saying that what she was
doing was curing her cancer.

It was making it better and...

...I had her there to look at.

I had her on my phone and she was in
magazines

and she was on the news and she was
being reported, so...

...I trusted her.

I trusted everybody that supported
her.

Wanting to follow Belle's eating
regime,

Kylie began messaging her directly
on Instagram.

When I sent her a message, it was
after she'd had another procedure

and I remember just, you know,
sending her good wishes

and, you know, "I hope you're going
to be OK",

and, "My thoughts and hopes are with
you,"

"Sending all, you know, positive
vibes",

and she replied, thanking me for my
kind wishes.

I was telling people, "I spoke to
Belle Gibson."

"She replied to my message",

like, and I'd be all that.

I felt like we were probably
opening,

you know, the lines of communication
and probably would chat more about,

you know, her journey and my
journey and...

...yeah, I was pretty chuffed at the
fact that she replied to my message.

I wanted to be her friend.

In July 2014, Belle posted this
picture on Instagram,

with a caption explaining how her
cancer had spread

and it wasn't a good prognosis.

With frustration and ache in my
heart,

my beautiful game-changing
community.

It hurts me to find space tonight,
to let you all know,

with love and strength,

that I've been diagnosed with a
third and fourth cancer.

I have cancer in my blood, spleen,
brain, uterus and liver.

I am hurting.

I can still see it so clearly in my
mind, that post and that caption,

because I just remember feeling so
devastated for her.

Like, how can this happen to
somebody who's worked so hard,

who's achieved all of this, who's
such a great person?

It just seemed really unfair.

If brain cancer wasn't bad enough,
and now, she's copping this

and this poor, beautiful woman
that,

you know, was just trying to live
her best life and...

...I felt so sad for her.

Belle's devoted followers poured
out their love and support

for her on social media,

but her claims were so extraordinary

that some had started to doubt her
story.

Around 2005, my wife Susan was
diagnosed with breast cancer,

and I recall very vividly...

...the feeling of powerlessness that
we both had

and you want to have some sense of
control over this illness

and not it just being in the hands
of a doctor

and how desperate you can feel...

So desperate that you'll go down the
Google rabbit hole

and look into all sorts of
alternative practices

and you get into this bewildering
kind of situation of who do I trust?

INTERVIEWER: What's the first thing
that comes into your mind

when you hear the name,
"Belle Gibson"?

The first thing that comes into my
mind is...

...my meeting with Belle Gibson in
February 2015,

when I sat down to interview her in
a cafe.

I had been writing about the
wellness phenomenon since 2012,

and then, I came across Belle
Gibson's claims online

and I was just immediately intrigued
by them.

Because I'd written about the
wellness industry

and had interviewed a range of
cancer specialists,

I just was immediately suspicious

about her claim about this brain
tumour.

You just don't live with something
like that for five years

without having some kind of
treatment.

As far as I could tell in the
mainstream media

no-one had really thought to raise
any questions

about this narrative that she had
put forward.

I said to my editor, "Look, there's
something that just doesn't add up.

"I mean, she's claiming that she's
got this malignant brain tumour

"and four other cancers and she
looks like a million dollars.

"I think we just dig into this a
bit."

One of the first things I noticed

when I began delving into Belle's
story was that on social media

she'd had enormous attention for the
past 18 months,

but prior to that, it was almost
as if she didn't exist.

It appeared that she had erased

parts of her online history prior to
2014.

That just really intrigued me
because the obvious question is,

why would you do that?

And so, I began doing intensive
searches of Google

to try and find any trace of her
before 2014.

And that's when I came across this
skateboard chat forum from 2009,

where there was this young woman
called Belle Gibson,

who was nothing like the Belle
Gibson of The Whole Pantry.

She was this 17-year-old
trash-talking skater girl.

And to be honest, initially, I
thought,

"Well, this can't possibly be Belle
Gibson."

You know, there must be just two
Belle Gibsons

because apart from anything else,

Belle Gibson was supposedly 20 years
old in 2009, not 17.

I came across this post,

where she talked about how she'd had
this tattoo done.

And I suddenly realised, like, this
is her,

because the tattoo she described

is the tattoo that Belle Gibson has
on her arm.

Not only had Belle been lying about
her age,

as Richard continued to research her
past,

he found further worrying
inconsistencies.

In the course of burrowing into this
skateboarding chat forum,

I came across these posts where she
claimed to be...

...writing from a hospital bed in
Hollywood Private Hospital in Perth,

and to be recovering from open-heart
surgery.

And she was claiming that she'd died
on the operating table

and been resuscitated.

I mean, it was supposedly written in
real time,

while she was in hospital.

She was describing the chapel that
she went to pray in.

And as with her Whole Pantry
Facebook page,

the reaction from all of these
people on the skate forum

was one of, you know, extraordinary
drama and, you know,

"My God, Belle! Are you OK?"

And, you know, "That's terrible!"

And, you know, "Should I send you
some flowers?"

It was kind of a mirror image of
what was on the Whole Pantry page

but it was five years earlier and a
younger incarnation of her

making these extraordinary, and
frankly, highly unlikely claims

about a medical emergency.

The other thing was there was no
mention on this skateboarding forum

about this malignant brain tumour
that she supposedly had.

Richard wasn't the only person
sceptical about Belle's story.

Online, others were raising doubts
too.

Penguin, the publishers of Belle's
book,

had also started to notice
discrepancies in her story.

Marie Claire said today, um...

"You really have changed the whole
market for food apps,

"Because now, it's like a trend.
Everyone wants to do one."

I'm like, I know.

To prepare Belle for journalists and
their probing questions,

they gave her media coaching.

What we suspect might happen now

is that because you are the success
story of the moment,

you know what journalists do,

they want to start scratch, scratch,
scratching away.

They already are. Yeah, exactly.

And we're concerned about that.

Well, that's what the publicist
at Apple also said.

It's like, what story do you want to
be?

So I'm going to ask you some of
these questions,

and some of them you won't like,
but...

...but that's OK cos it's just us.
Yeah.

You've said that the cancer is now
in your blood and your spleen

and your brain and your uterus and
your liver, that's really...

It's... it's serious now, isn't it?

Yeah.

Um...

I'm going to get tested for ovarian
cancer.

I no longer have cancer in my
uterus.

Woohoo! That's great news. Really
amazing.

Um... When were you told that?

Um... Not long ago.

Yeah, that's great news. Yeah,
but...

...it still all feels like it sucks
down there.

Do you think you're dying? Yeah.

Do you feel like you're dying?
Yeah, and I'm fine with that.

And it's conflicting for a lot of
people.

Like, I don't think I'm going to die
tomorrow but my body is dying.

Like, of course it is.

But I don't want them to know every
nitty-gritty detail.

After a year of following a strict
clean eating diet,

Maxine wasn't seeing the results
promised by wellness.

My health started deteriorating.

I was starting to feel a lot more
run-down.

I had lost my period,

and physically, I just wasn't
feeling that good any more.

I would often find myself hungry a
lot of the time,

creating the sort of binge cycle at
night.

I'd eat like maybe half a jar of
peanut butter

or something like that, and then,
call my mum and be like,

"I don't know why I can't stop
eating.

"I don't know what's wrong with me."

And she'd say, "Are you thinking
maybe it's the diet that you're on?"

I'd be like, "No, no, the diet's
fine, it's me."

I did see a doctor. And of course,

one of the first things they'll say
is,

"You need to eat more and exercise
less."

But of course, that is the opposite
of what society always tells you

you need to do in order to be
healthy,

so I was like, "They're talking
nonsense.

"Of course, I don't need to exercise
less and eat more.

"What I'm doing is perfectly
healthy.

"I'm taking care of my health, so
that's definitely not it."

And I just ignored their advice.

I definitely think there was a
frustration that I...

...I was doing everything -

I was following all the rules,

I had the books that all these
wellness influencers were selling

that would help me transform my
life.

And my life didn't look like that.

It didn't look that glamorous or
exciting.

I just felt like a complete failure.

In February 2015, Richard flew to
Melbourne to meet Belle,

who was doing interviews to
publicise her new book,

The Whole Pantry.

There was a certain sense of
anticipation

when I sat down opposite her at this
cafe of what is she going to say

and how much am I going to be able
to glean from her?

The thing that you first notice
about Belle Gibson

is that she just doesn't look sick
at all,

like she's the picture of glowing
health.

And the second thing you notice
about her is

she acts much younger than you
expect her to act.

I kept thinking to myself,

"This is the woman who's reduced
roomfuls of people to tears

"and has generated this almost
messianic following online."

And I was sitting there thinking,

"I just don't find you convincing."

I just didn't buy it.

As we went on, it became clear that
it was very difficult

to get any kind of specificity out
of her.

You know, she would apologise -

her memory was affected by her
medical condition.

The impression I got was that she
thinks on her feet

and she shifts her position as she
goes.

And she creates this confusion in
your mind

as to what it is that she's saying.

You're trying to pin her down, but
she keeps shifting position.

So, about halfway through the
interview,

I framed a question, which was
something along the lines of,

"What about these other four cancers

"that you were recently diagnosed
with?"

And she started this answer that...

...just seemed to go around in
circles.

And she was talking about the
difficulty she was having.

She was going to tell me something

that she hadn't said publicly
before.

It was very difficult and upsetting
for her.

And I was just sitting there
thinking,

"What... what is... Where is this
going?

"Like, what is she talking about?"

And she started telling me that the
doctor

who diagnosed her with these other
four cancers the previous year,

had shot through on her and she was
no longer seeing him.

And she now had doubts about his
bona fides.

And so I said to her, "Well, what
are you telling me?

"Are you saying that you're now not
sure...

"..that you've got these other four
cancers?"

And she said, "No."

I was just completely stunned that
she would backtrack

from this extraordinary claim that
she'd made only seven months
earlier.

I just walked away from that
interview

with, really, my head spinning.

I remember calling my editor from
the car and saying,

"You know, I just can't believe
this has happened.

"Belle Gibson just recanted to me,
on the record."

Belle had changed her story about
having secondary cancers.

But before he could safely go to
press,

Richard had to prove his theory that
Belle never had brain cancer.

So, I'm at my desk one day at the
office.

At this point, I'd been ringing
just about anybody I can

who knows Belle Gibson,

and my phone rings and it's Belle
Gibson on the phone.

I knew straight away that she was
really unhappy

about the fact that I was digging
around, as I expected she would be.

She, in her circuitous way, started
talking about how damaging...

...media stories can be for people
and that people who are, um...

...vulnerable can even, you know,
commit suicide sometimes,

if stories of a damaging nature are
published.

I just got off the phone and
thought, "Oh, man!", you know,

"She's just sort of suggested that,
if I publish this story,

"she's going to top herself."

Other journalists were on Belle's
trail, too.

They found that she dropped out of
school aged 15,

and two years later, she settled in
Melbourne just before having a son.

They also made a shocking discovery
about Belle's business.

Doubts were raised when she failed
to deliver

a promised $300,000 to charity.

The reason that Nick Toscano and I
started looking into it

was because we were tipped off.

We had around half a dozen people
in Belle Gibson's inner circle

telling us that they didn't believe
she was sick.

But that's a very difficult story
for a journalist to write.

We don't have access to people's
medical records.

So, we started probing her other
claims

and these centred around her
charitable donations.

So, you were effectively following
the money? That's right.

The news that Belle hadn't paid the
promised share of her profits

to charity rocked the online
wellness world,

attracting loyal defenders and
fierce critics.

Belle took to the internet to defend
her reputation.

I knew we had to publish
immediately,

we couldn't sit on what we had any
more,

and so I went to the news desk and
we got legal advice

and we went straight to the press
that day under the headline,

Mega-Blogger Casts Doubt On Cancer
Claims.

Belle's story exploded into the
public sphere,

and as news of her cancer fraud
spread fast,

it garnered a furious backlash.

Overnight, some of her most loyal
fans became her biggest critics.

I was at my girlfriend's hair salon

and it flicked up on my social media
that Belle Gibson had lied.

I just burst out straight away,
saying,

"Oh, my God, Belle Gibson is a
liar!"

I don't know, I felt betrayed and a
little bit let down by her,

and then, the absolute mind-blowing,
why the hell would you do that?

Why would you pretend to have
cancer?

Like...

...what the hell?

I felt like it made me look like an
idiot.

When the story broke,

those closest to Belle were
reluctant to go on the record,

afraid of the backlash for being
associated with her.

Even Belle's parents didn't publicly
support her.

Now, one of Belle's friends has
agreed to speak out

as long as she isn't identified.

It extremely quickly became this
very toxic story

and I kind of didn't want to touch
it with a ten-foot pole

because of how toxic it appeared
from day one.

Belle grew up in Wynnum, a
working-class suburb of Brisbane.

She claimed to have left home at age
12,

spending her teens living with
friends.

I remember the first time I ever met
Belle,

she looked me right in the eye

and she really tried to connect with
me very deeply.

For a 14-year-old girl, you know,

that was something that was really
lovely.

And I definitely enjoyed my time
with Belle.

The only catch with Belle was that
you knew that

there was nothing that she could say
that you could take at face value.

When she came to class in an arm
sling,

there was no chance it was actually
a broken arm.

And, you know, the next week told us
that she was a test tube baby.

We all kind of went, "Oh, yeah,
sure. OK, Belle."

We kind of all knew from the
beginning that Belle likes to lie.

I remember a few years ago now,
opening up Facebook

and seeing a video and I recognised
the face.

It was Belle talking about some app
that she was creating.

And instantly, I kind of had alarm
bells ringing

in the back of my mind.

I kind of sat there going,

"Has she done it again but on a
massive scale now?"

People's immediate reaction was
denial.

This can't be real, surely not.

And then, as I think it started
to sink in,

that's when the doubt creeped in and
people thought,

"OK, maybe she actually did lie."

It was five years ago I was
diagnosed with terminal cancer.

I don't think I'm going to die
tomorrow, but my body is dying.

For a person living with brain
cancer, might I add,

you look incredibly healthy.

I felt incredibly gullible that I
had fallen for something

that could so easily have been
disproven and was disproven.

How could I be so stupid?

It's so devastating for the
industry.

She was such an important figure.

It blows all trust out the water
with everyone's stories.

I felt really disappointed in
myself...

...for having been tricked by her.

I became a lot more cynical that
day.

It was clear that wellness was never
going to be the same.

Belle disappeared, purging all
traces of herself from social media.

A Facebook group called Belle Gibson
Uncovered sprang to life,

where people shared stories about
Belle

and examined her every post for
inconsistencies.

It was driven by a lot of people

whose family had gone through
cancer,

whether it be directly or
indirectly,

and people that had lost people

because they didn't go through
conventional treatment.

So, they were really angry.

They were angry about the influence
that she had on people.

They blamed her.

A lot of people blamed her for
things that had gone wrong.

There was a lot of pictures from her
past

that were contradictory to the image
that she was selling, you know.

It was, you know, images of her
drinking or smoking

and not living that amazing, healthy
lifestyle that she promoted.

If only we had done that before we
gave her the platform to...

...be the person that she was.

Within two weeks of the story
breaking,

Penguin had withdrawn Belle's book

and Apple had removed any mention of
The Whole Pantry

from their website and App Store.

Welcome back to The Life And Lies
Of Belle Gibson,

the woman who pretended to have
cancer,

and to this day, still won't tell
the truth

that she knew she didn't.

Three months after the scandal
broke,

Belle appeared on the Australian
current affairs show, 60 Minutes.

You go on Instagram in 2013 -

"I have been healing a severe and
malignant brain cancer

"for the past few years, with
natural medicine,

"Gerson Therapy, and foods.

"It's working for me."

It is and if any...

Except you didn't have brain cancer.

No, I didn't.

She wasn't at all how I expected her
to be.

She just came across as devoid of
emotions,

lacking in any empathy or even
recognition

of the people that she hurt.

How can we believe anything you say
now?

Tara, I have lost everything.

Would you accept that you're a
pathological liar?

No.

I never quite could sort out my
feelings about Belle Gibson,

because even though what she did
was...

...reprehensible and dangerous,

she personally, I thought, was a
very fragile person,

whose grip on reality was a bit
tenuous.

And so, I was constantly in this
dilemma about

whether I felt sympathy for or
I loathed her.

She's definitely not well because
you don't...

A well person doesn't do what she's
done and believe in her own lies.

But she's also highly intelligent.

She thinks we're all stupid.

That's what annoys me about her.

She is the type of person that
thinks

that she's smarter than the rest of
us and we're all fools,

maybe we were there for a little
bit,

and that she can do and say whatever
she likes without any consequence.

BELLE'S FRIEND: On the internet it
is so much easier

to prioritise anger than it is to
prioritise compassion.

I see people still with so much
hatred and anger

in their hearts at her,

and I kind of wish that they knew
the 14-year-old Belle

and understood the full context of
this.

I hope that Belle took some really
hard lessons

and can... Not have to deal with
being public enemy number one.

Pixie and Maxine had become friends
through wellness,

but after years of restrictive
dieting,

it had taken a toll on their health.

When I look back now on my time
in wellness,

I had an unhealthy relationship with
food.

It was obsessive. It was
anxiety-inducing.

It was classic signs of orthorexia.

Orthorexia is an eating disorder

characterised by having an unsafe
obsession with healthy food.

When I was in the midst of it, there
was so much denial... Yeah.

...in terms of the idea that this
might actually not be helpful.

This is actually harming me and
wasn't making me feel good.

No, no, I blocked that out.

I couldn't possibly face that idea.

I would've been like, "Everything's
great, everything's wonderful."

There was so much denial, which I
guess is quite...

...classic for disordered eating,

is that there is that kind of
denial that can often be there.

Yeah, and I think it's almost
disordered eating is so normalised

within wellness that, you know,

when you are so immersed within that
culture,

in your view, there's nothing
disordered about it.

I just wanted to have a normal uni
experience

after years and years of being in
and out of school

and never really having a sense of
stability.

I just desperately needed something
to cling on to for dear life.

Yeah. And that's what wellness
presented itself as.

Yeah, we were vulnerable. Wellness
came along and said,

"Hi, we can help."

When you look at our story,

it very much shows that wellness is
seductive.

It is intriguing.

And...

...the worst part about it is that
you are never good enough.

You can never reach peak wellness.

You can never be good enough for
wellness.

And that is to somebody who's going
into that already vulnerable

and probably with low self-esteem,

probably not feeling too great about
themselves

because of whatever's going on,

it just pushes you down further and
just makes you feel worthless

and that is shit.

Belle was fined £230,000 for making
false claims

about her donations to charity.

A fine she's never paid.

The people of Australia want to know
why you haven't paid that fine.

Today, it's rumoured that she's
working in a Melbourne school

and that she's converted to Islam.

As the dust settles on her story,

some wonder how she'd been allowed
to achieve such success,

and if Belle was the only guilty
party.

I don't feel anger towards Belle

in the same way that I do towards
the industry as a whole.

I feel angry at social media for
creating this space

where misinformation can spread
unchecked.

I feel angry at the publishers who
gave Belle a platform

to profit from people's
vulnerability.

KYLIE: You didn't even for a second
question her

because of who supported her, who
was backing her.

It wasn't just Apple,
it was Penguin Books.

It was Cosmopolitan that had,

you know, endorsed her and stood
behind her,

so I wouldn't have thought

it was ever my responsibility to
fact-check her.

The biggest publishing company in
the world

and the biggest computer company in
the world had apparently

completely failed to do any due
diligence on her claims.

I mean, Penguin admitted to me that
they didn't really do

any proper fact-checking on her
medical history.

And Apple, when I finally got
someone to talk to me,

effectively said, well...

...they didn't care about the
questions that were being raised

about her cancer claim, as long as
her app worked.