Belle Gibson
| Belle Gibson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Annabelle Natalie Gibson October 1988 (age 29) Launceston, Tasmania, Australia |
| Residence | Elwood, Victoria, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Scammer, Blogger, health food entrepreneur, social media entrepreneur |
| Known for | Fabricated claims of having had multiple cancers which were self-treated through diet and alternative medicine. Fabricated claims of undergoing multiple heart surgeries and suffering strokes. Fraudulent claims that $300,000 of income from sales had been donated to charities. |
| Partner(s) | Clive Rothwell |
| Children | 1 |
Annabelle Natalie "Belle" Gibson (born October 1988) is an Australian blogger, app publisher and alternative health advocate. Her well-known marketing platform was founded on her fraudulent claims of having donated significant income to charities, and of having forgone conventional cancer treatments to positively self-manage multiple cancers through diet and controversial alternative therapies.
Gibson is the author of the The Whole Pantry smartphone application and its later companion cookbook, both of which were subsequently withdrawn from sale from the Apple Store. The Whole Pantry application was featured in promotional material for the as-then unreleased Apple Watch, but was removed from Apple advertising after the controversy broke.
In early March 2015, after media reporting identified Gibson's apparently fraudulent claims of charity fundraising and donation-making, further media investigation soon revealed that Gibson had also apparently fabricated her stories of cancer, and lied about her age as well as other details of her personal life and history. Concerns were expressed that Gibson had led a profligate lifestyle, renting an upmarket town house, leasing a luxury car and office space, undergoing cosmetic dental procedures, purchasing designer clothes and holidaying internationally, on money claimed to have been raised or destined for charity.
The media were increasingly reporting specified fraudulent claims by Gibson and The Whole Pantry regarding charity fundraising and donation-making, and detailed the many inconsistencies in Gibson's claimed medical history. With a collapsing social media support base, in an April 2015 interview Gibson admitted that her claims of cancers had been fabricated, stating that "none of it's true".
Gibson's actions have been described as "particularly predatory", and "deceit on a grand scale, for personal profit".
On May 6, 2016, Consumer Affairs Victoria announced that it would take legal action against Gibson and Inkerman Road Nominees Pty Ltd (originally known as Belle Gibson Pty Ltd) for "false claims by Ms Gibson and her company concerning her diagnosis with terminal brain cancer, her rejection of conventional cancer treatments in favour of natural remedies, and the donation of proceeds to various charities." Penguin Australia Pty Ltd, publishers of The Whole Pantry book, had cooperated with the investigation and agreed to make a $30,000 donation to the Victorian Consumer Law Fund, acknowledging that it had not taken adequate steps to verify Gibson's claims prior to publishing the book. On 15 March 2017, the Federal Court supported most of those claims, concluding that “Ms Gibson had no reasonable basis to believe she had cancer."
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