Netflix‘s Apple Cider Vinegar show tells the sordid story of Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever). In the early 2010s, Gibson shot to online fame detailing how she was able to kick terminal brain cancer thanks to a number of unorthodox treatments, including clean eating as espoused by her super popular recipe-planning app, The Whole Pantry. Gibson was seen as an inspirational figure, offering a uplifting alternative to the chemotherapy, surgeries, and pills that cancer patients were prescribed.
The problem was Belle Gibson was lying about her cancer. Nearly everything about Belle, from her commitment to charity to her battles with cancer, was a lie. But Belle wasn’t alone. She was part of a larger, toxic ecosystem that promised cancer patients miraculous results outside of traditional medicine. Some of the figures that shot to fame in this sector were victims themselves, desperately clinging to hope despite the reality of their terminal diagnoses. Others were simply scammers, leeching off of the vulnerable with snake oil packaged as “black salve” or “coffee enemas.”
Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar claims at the top of every episode to be “a true story based on a lie.” We’re told that some names have been changed, some fictional events and characters have been created, and that Belle Gibson has not been paid for this recreation of her life story.
So is the Apple Cider Vinegar show based on a true story? How much of Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar is real? Who is the real Belle Gibson? Did Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey) exist? Here’s everything you need to know about the real story behind the show, Apple Cider Vinegar…
Is the Apple Cider Vinegar Show Based on a True Story? Belle Gibson, The Whole Pantry, and Milla Blake, aka Jess Ainscough:
Netflix’s new limited series Apple Cider Vinegar is indeed based on a true story. It’s specifically inspired by the nonfiction book, The Woman Who Fooled The World: The True Story of Fake Wellness Guru Belle Gibson, by journalists Beau Donnelly and Nick Toscano.
Annabelle “Belle” Gibson is a real Australian woman who shot to fame by posting online about her journey keeping cancer at bay with a healthy diet and alternative medicine. She used her “life story” to promote her app, The Whole Pantry, which sought to help people organize their grocery lists and meal plans around vegan, organic, gluten-free meals. The app was massively successful and picked up by Apple. Around the time that the The Whole Pantry cookbook was set to launch, it became clear that key details in Belle’s story didn’t add up. Beau Donnelly and Nick Toscano soon exposed Gibson for her lies, which included massive amounts of charity fraud.
Cancer conwoman Belle Gibson’s trainwreck interview on 60 Minutes. The Australian scammer rose to fame on Instagram with her “inspirational” story of cancer survival. A best-selling app — handpicked by Apple to feature on its new smartwatch — and an international book deal with Penguin followed. But her story was a lie: she never had cancer. Gibson, who was found guilty of deceptive and misleading conduct in the Federal Court of Australia, has refused to pay a $410,000 fine. Full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCN2Uvyz72k #bellegibson #realbellegibson #thewholepantry #crimetok #truecrime #influencer #60minutes #60minutesaustralia #applecidervinegar #netflix #apple #penguinbooks #instagram #wellness #melbourne #australia
Belle Gibson’s app was soon dropped by Apple, her cookbook pulped, and her reputation tarnished in a series of embarrassing interviews and exposés. After being found guilty in Australian criminal court for withholding money from various charities, Belle seemingly went underground until a few years ago when she claimed to be apart of Australia’s Ethopian Oromo community. She changed her name, began wearing traditional clothing, and even tried to insert herself in the community’s organizing efforts. That is, until the Oromo completely disavowed her.
Apple Cider Vinegar also follows the stories of two other Australian contemporaries of Belle, both actually suffering from cancer. Café manager Lucy Guthrie (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) is a fictional character invented for the show to represent Belle’s innocent followers wrongfully taken in by her grift. Editor and influencer Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey), on the other hand, is a clear stand in for Jessica Ainscough.
Jess Ainscough, aka “the Wellness Warrior,” was a popular young magazine editor in Australia who was diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma. While she initially turned to traditional medicine for treatment, she evidently balked when doctors told her that she would need her arm amputated. Ainscough turned to Gerson Therapy, a controversial regiment that promised that a plant-based diet, with an emphasis on juicing, and coffee enemas could rid the body of cancer. When it seemed to work for her, Ainscough made promoting the treatment her mission, going so far as to sell multiple books on the topic.
Ainscough’s cancer would return, however. In December 2014, Ainscough revealed to followers that after ten months of dealing with a bleeding fungating tumor on her shoulder, she had opted to restart traditional oncology treatment. She would receive radiation treatment the weeks before her death in February 2015.
Milla Blake’s story in Apple Cider Vinegar is a fictionalized version of Ainscough’s. Apple Cider Vinegar protects most of the real people involved in this saga except those in Belle Gibson’s orbit. Clive Rothwell (Ashley Zukerman) is the name Belle’s now former partner and he really did bankroll The Whole Pantry. Natalie (Essie Davis) is the also the real name of Belle’s mother and the real Natalie suffers from MS and happily threw her daughter under the bus in the press. Chanelle (Aisha Dee) is loosely based on Chanelle McAuliffe, a friend of Gibson’s who rang the alarm on her deceit. You might notice that Belle’s young son is never given a first name in the show. That is clearly to protect the still underage child because he is absolutely innocent.
Apple Cider Vinegar is exactly what it promises on the tin: based on a true story based on a lie. It’s a six-part dramatization of a wild moment in time where people trusted smiling strangers on the internet more than their physicians. (Oh, wait, is that still happening? Joking! Joking.)
Anyway, your best rule of thumb for sorting the truth from the lies in Apple Cider Vinegar is to remember that Belle’s story is almost totally true, Milla is a fictional character heavily inspired by Jess Ainscough, and Lucy was invented for the show.
The post Is the ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ Show Based on a True Story? All About Belle Gibson, The Whole Pantry, and Jess Ainscough appeared first on Decider.
