Warning: This article contains spoilers for Apple Cider Vinegar and its ending.
Because Netflix’s new drama Apple Cider Vinegar is based on a true story, viewers seeking answers about Belle Gibson’s real-life fate can probably find some in its source material, the book The Woman Who Fooled the World: The True Story of Fake Wellness Guru Belle Gibson, written by Australian journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano.
However, if you’re looking for a quicker summary of the many different storylines covered in the show, including outcomes of the fictionalized characters, we’ve got you covered.
How does Belle Gibson’s story end?
The final episode of the series, “Tapeworm,” concludes with Belle’s interview with 60 Minutes Australia. In real life, the interview took place in 2018, three years after she was exposed for her fraudulent cancer claims.
Despite reporter Tara Brown’s tough questioning, Belle doesn’t budge, insisting that she believed that she had cancer, and dancing around the allegations of charity fraud. She also demands $75,000—her fee for the interview.
When she exits the interview, which was filmed at her home in LA, Belle joins Clive and her son at the pool, where the trio look happy and healthy.
**Real Life: **Gibson really did wear a hot pink sweater for that 60 Minutes interview, which you can watch here. In the years since her fake cancer scheme was revealed, Gibson has been in and out of the news, mostly regarding her legal troubles related to the fraud.
In 2020, however, she was once again caught scamming: This time she claimed to be an “adopted” member of Melbourne’s Oromo community, part of the Ethiopian diaspora. In an ITV documentary called Instagram’s Worst Con Artist, journalist Richard Guilliatt said, “She’s been going to meetings and calling herself Sabontu and speaking in broken Ethiopian dialect.” She also began referring to Ethiopia as “back home.”
Adds Guilliatt, “They were shocked to find out who she is, and she ends up being rejected by that community.”
Per The Times, Gibson currently resides in Melbourne.
Does Belle go to jail?
Keeping with the cheeky, self-referential nature of the show, Kaitlyn Dever, as Belle Gibson, breaks the fourth wall at the end of the series, interrupting a title card which reads, “In 2017, the Federal Court of Australia found Belle Gibson guilty of misleading and—”
“You know what,” Dever says to the camera in her Aussie accent, “You can Google it.” To answer the question, then: No, Belle Gibson does not go to jail at the end of the show.
Real Life: You might be thinking, surely she must’ve spent some time in jail IRL for her many alleged crimes. The answer is also: Nope! According to The Guardian, Gibson was fined roughly half a million dollars for misleading and deceptive conduct. She was not criminally prosecuted.
In 2021, The Guardian reported that Gibson’s home was raided and her assets seized in an attempt to recover unpaid fines. In the same article, the Guardian reported that Gibson still owed roughly $500,000, including penalties and interest, despite a financial analysis which estimated she spent more than $90,000 between 2017 and 2019 on cosmetics, clothes, and vacations.
Do Clive and Belle stay together?
At the end of the final episode of the limited series, Clive and Belle’s young son are pictured together at the couple’s home in LA, the implication being that Clive stayed with Belle in order to maintain his relationship with her son.
As the series progresses, viewers learn that Clive apparently knew more than he let on about Belle’s schemes. Things come to a head after Belle fakes a seizure at her son’s birthday party, frightening him. Clive insists on taking Belle to the hospital, but Belle refuses to leave the car, leading to Clive to explode in frustration. However, when he expresses his doubts about Belle’s cancer diagnosis to her, she becomes cold, reminding him that he has no parental rights.
Separately, when Clive takes Belle’s son to visit Nathan, Belle’s ex and her son’s father, Clive appears to fumble for a way to work out an arrangement that allows him to leave Belle while still maintaining his relationship with her son. In the end, it becomes increasingly clear that the only way to stay in her son’s life is for Clive to remain with Belle.
Real Life: In 2023, the Daily Mail Australia reported that Clive moved out of his and Gibson’s shared home, and that they were no longer together. Clive has also been photographed out with another woman, per the outlet.
What happens to Hunter, the little boy with brain cancer?
In the final moments of the series, Hunter’s mom, Fiona, tells The Age reporter Justin that Hunter is stopping treatment. It is implied that the family did not receive any of the funds they were promised in order to afford the experimental surgery that might save his life.
In a separate interview, Hunter’s dad says the whole family had become the targets of an angry mob who assumed that they were in cahoots with Belle. Recalling a particularly devastating exchange, Hunter’s dad says he was asked to “prove” that his son had brain cancer.
“How?” he asked, to which the man replied, “A funeral would be nice.”
**Real Life: **Hunter’s story appears to based on the story of Josh Schwarz, whose parents, Penne and Wolfgang Schwarz, told the Herald Sun that Belle Gibson befriended Penne on social media after learning about Josh’s rare brain cancer diagnosis.
“We can’t help but think, ‘Did she use us to get in the mind of Joshua?’” she told the paper. “She’d always ask heaps of questions about Joshy’s cancer and treatments. Was it to give her more credibility?”
In the same Sun article, the Schwarzes say that Gibson did fundraise for Josh—but she did so without telling them. They add that they were “blindsided” by the media reports that Gibson claimed to be raising funds for Joshua through sales of The Whole Pantry.
What happens to Chanelle, Arlo, and Milla’s dad?
At Milla’s funeral, which Belle crashes, Arlo, Chanelle, and Milla’s dad, Joe, appear to lean on each other for support. Eventually, after Belle attempts to save face with Arlo after the service she loudly interrupts with her sobs, he kicks her off their property.
There’s no real closure for Milla’s family after she and her mother, Tamara, both pass away within a year of each other from untreated cancers. Aside from Chanelle taking Belle’s story to the press, and Arlo telling Belle off at the funeral, Milla’s family does not retaliate against Belle, or the Hirsch institute, where Milla first attempted to treat her cancer through dietary changes.
In the final episode, Chanelle, Arlo, and Joe are seen planting two trees in the yard, presumably in honor of Milla and Tamara.
**Real Life: **Milla Blake’s story is largely based on the story of Australian wellness blogger Jessica Ainscough, who passed away in 2015 at age 29 of epithelioid sarcoma. Ainscough reportedly rejected Western medicine in favor of Gerson Therapy—which seems to be the blueprint for the fictional Hirsch Therapy mentioned in the show.
In real life, Ainscough’s mother, Sharyn Ainscough, died of breast cancer in 2013. The Guardian reported at the time of Jessica’s death that Sharyn “followed her daughter in advocating Gerson therapy” after her diagnosis in 2011, and died two and a half years later.
Belle Gibson did, in real life, crash Ainscough’s funeral, according to The Woman Who Fooled the World.
Does Lucy survive?
Lucy, another of the characters with a real cancer diagnosis, does appear to survive. In the final episode, we see Lucy reunite with her husband, the journalist Justin, after a period of not speaking with each other while Lucy was in South America pursuing alternative therapies, including what looks like an ayahuasca trip. By the time they reunite, Lucy has regrown a shaggy pixie, seeming to indicate that it’s been several weeks at least since they last saw each other.
In a final montage, Lucy and Justin return to the hospital to resume treatment. We watch as she is prepped for surgery, which her doctor prefaced with, “We do this, and we hope like hell.” The timeline of the rest of the montage is unclear, but the surgery scene is bookended with scenes of the couple doing yoga together, dancing, and submerging in his-and-hers bathtubs on the beach like those two people in that infamous Cialis commercial. Once more in a doctor’s office, they look at each other and smile.
In our last glimpse of Lucy and Justin, she is undergoing chemotherapy while he holds her hand. The ending seems up to interpretation, and personally, I’m taking it to mean that the surgery was successful and this last round of chemotherapy is simply a cautionary measure.
**Real Life: **Neither of the two journalists who worked to break Gibson’s story for Australian newspaper The Age, Nick Toscano and Beau Donelly, seem to be the inspiration for Justin or his co-author Jeremy. It is unconfirmed at this time if Lucy is a fictional character.
In a recent podcast, Toscano and Donelly did confirm that they received a tip about Gibson’s fake cancer diagnosis from a member of her inner circle. “[The source] struck me as someone who was very intelligent, and who was just horrified, really, for the role she had played in supporting Belle Gibson, who she now believed was a cancer faker,” Donelly said. “I started that call feeling very critical, almost dismissive of her claims. But I came away from it absolutely fascinated by what she was saying.”
Apple Cider Vinegar is now streaming on Netflix.
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