Belle Gibson: The worst

Written By Jenna Gurka

Belle Gibson

Wellness influencer Belle Gibson claimed that she had cured herself of malignant brain cancer through clean eating and coffee enemas. But, spoiler alert, she was a huge F*CKING liar.

To know Belle Gibson is to never know the truth. The convicted fraudster sold herself as being a cancer survivor who healed herself through a well balanced diet and alternative modalities, gaining hundreds of thousands of followers and inspiring cancer patients to shirk traditional medicine to follow Belle’s path. But little did the public know, that not only did she never have cancer, but she used her philanthropic efforts as a means of ripping off her adoring fanbase.

  • What should we call this one? I should have been thinking about I do this every time. I do this every time. The worst human being is spiritually fucked. She's worse.

    She's the worst human that might possibly exist. She is the leachiest. Chanel gonna tell. Chanel gonna tell. Chanel gonna tell.

    Clearly, I don't talk to humans. I know. Me neither, though. Literally, I'm, like, just roll you know, it's fine. Everything is fine.

    I'm fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine. You're that dog that everything's on fire. Today was a dumpster fire, but I'm okay.

    Yeah. Honestly, as long as I continue to be productive. I can and as long as I can see no. No. No.

    Be productive. Well, I can I just need to see why I'm tired, and that'll make me that'll kinda fill me back up again? I don't know. Just like the, you know, all the efforts. All the efforts?

    Like, the fruits of your labors. Relishing and the fruits of your labors is something else. Right? Mhmm. It's like cleaning your whole room.

    Oh, yeah. Clean sheets. Mhmm. Laying down with the can in the night. Yeah.

    Yep. That's why I felt like my hostage. Yeah. I, recently put on my duvet cover. Oh.

    I've been not I haven't had my duvet cover on in so long, because duvet covers. Yeah. They're so hard to put on. Was like, I should use this. And, and it's getting cold, so So maybe like the texture And it's like, oh.

    Tommy walked into our room and was like, why is every it feels so like cozy. And I was like, oh, yeah. Oh, the duvet. The duvet. The duvet.

    I do love your duvet cover though. It's just plain white. No. It's the one with the stripes. Oh, no.

    I got rid of that. Why? Because it was funky. It was so cozy though. It was okay.

    Okay. Alright. My new duvet is, like, way cozier. Like that one. Did you buy a new duvet cover?

    It was like a duvet and a duvet cover, but it was from Amazon. It was super cheap, and it was super cozy. So I hear that there's some viral freaking sheets on that Amazon. I don't know. But they're like they're supposed to be all the rage.

    They're so cozy. Did you buy them? Yeah. I have the sheets. I have the duvet cover.

    I have the duvet. Yeah. And they're all like super expensive. I went to an Airbnb, like, when we went to Joshua Tree, like, a few years ago. Oh.

    We stayed at a place and I was, like, these sheets are so amazing. So I, like found the tag. I found the tag. Yes. So I found the tag.

    Oh, my gosh, family. The same pillows from the Airbnb. I took pictures of everything. Of course. Because I was like, this is like the best sleep, and it's like so luxurious.

    And then I was like, oh, these are probably so expensive, and I looked them up, and it was like, the sheets were like, like king-size sheets on Amazon were $30. Fuck off. Are they so comfy? When I switched them when I, like, switched them when I washed them back to my other ones Mhmm. Tommy's, like, disappointed.

    Okay. Send me the link. I need link. Yeah. Okay.

    I'll send link. I'll put link in the show notes. Oh. Even though they don't sponsor us, I'll do everyone a solid. Yes.

    If I remember. I'll remind you because I want link. I want link. I want link. Send me link.

    Okay. So today. Gilmore. Like the grammar verse. I have to find I have to find the notes.

    It's actually, like, not funny at all. Like, at all. Okay. Hold on. But, I and I do, I need to shout out hold on.

    I need to shout out whoever near read it the audio book, because I read the book and then listened to the audio book. No. I didn't read the book. I only listened to audio book. I was driving around so much, going from one place to another, and I'm reading the Britney Spears book.

    And Oh my god. How is that going? Side note. Oh my god. So it is rough.

    And, I don't I get why they just, like, let it go. But there's a lot of stories where she's just like, these guys showed up with huge guns outside her tour bus, and everyone is freaking out. I don't know what happened, but we were able to get through the border. Honestly Like, stories like that where I don't really know what happened. But I'm like, the wife I mean, what what Yeah.

    Everything happens. So I keep seeing it show up on the Netflix. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

    I can't watch it. No. I'm I can't. It's too cringe, and it's too sad. Yeah.

    I'm not there. I don't wanna, like I'm for sure into the juice, and, honestly, I don't know if Sondra wouldn't have bought Jade and I a copy. She did not buy you guys copies of the juice. We're passing it around. Did it come to you next?

    No. I don't want it. You don't wanna read it? No. I'm it it'll make me sad.

    I I can't It doesn't make you I don't know. It doesn't make me sad. It's just like a, oh, god. I don't know. Okay.

    Some of it, you're like, okay. Go, Brit. But other times, you're like, ugh. Yeah. For me, I'm just kinda like the demise of a fucking human.

    And I can't I can't watch that kind of train wreck. Yeah. I can't read about it either. It'll make me it'll I'll I'll spiral. Yeah.

    I can see that. Yeah. I'm too, like, in my feelings also. It's really funny when she talks about Kevin Federline. No.

    Like, okay. Like, Basimise is like that. Mhmm. Like, how did he dance his way into her life? Like, it's so fucking crazy to me.

    No. He didn't. She didn't. He wasn't really, like, a backup dancer. She met him somewhere else and hired him to go with her to be, like, a backup dancer because she wanted him with her.

    And then she would be, like, you know, he had this career, which is, like, so sweet that he's trying so hard, but it's, like, not going well. My god. But no. So I was I'm reading that, and then I'm reading his, like, other shit. I don't know.

    He makes so much money off of her. He probably has to do nothing. Really sad. See? I can't fucking Yeah.

    Yeah. But so, yeah, I had all these things. So I was like, I'm gonna give my eyes a break, and I'm gonna listen to the audiobook. It's called the woman who fooled the world by Bo Donnelly and Nick Toscano. They're the 2 reporters that, like, broke this story, and, it is narrated.

    Hold on. Does it say who narrated this? Because he is a fucking gem. James Saunders. I need to see what he looks like.

    I don't know what he looks like. I don't know what he sounds like. He's a fucking gem. He's an Australian guy. So dry.

    So dry. But he, and if this doesn't entice you to listen to the audio book, I don't know what would help. Is that he, Saunders. He's talking about someone's voice mail message, and after a whole lot of, like, dry talking like this Oh. He's like he starts singing Kylie Minogue, and he starts going and then he's like kicked out of my head.

    Like, he just full on commits. And I had him stop. I don't know. I don't know what he looks like. It's an audiobook.

    It's a demon. But he, I must know his face. I I don't know if it's legal for me to, like, even post this if I can find it at the end, but I'm going to because, like, I've audiobooks narrated by James Saunders. I had to stop. I made Tommy listen to it.

    I was like, can you please tell me I've not just gone crazy? He makes a killing off of narrating he's he's narrated so many. I mean, he's got, like, such a sweet voice. He also does, like, really good impressions of what I assume these people sound the blank. Perhaps Kylie.

    I've never really done and Kylie Minogue. I've never really done an audiobook before, so that was a very good experience. I, this has to be him. It's him. I don't have wait.

    Hold on. Can your eyeballs? Oh, yeah. It looks Does it look like Does it look like the voice the face? The voice and the face match.

    Very handsome. He's got a strong jaw. A very strong jaw. He kinda has like a Daniel Radcliffe jaw. He does.

    Have you seen Miracle Workers? And he has great blue eyes. No. Miracle Workers? You guys should watch it.

    It's so good. So speaking of Daniel Radcliffe, I freaking love him. Okay. So the story Sorry. Tangent.

    Do you know who Belle Gibson is? Did you say Belle Gibson? Yeah. Not Mel Gibson. Not Mel Gibson.

    I do not. Belle Gibson. Is she related to the Mel? No. Oh, because that would have been weird.

    That would have been fucking weird. No. I don't know who Belle Gibson is. Who's Belle? Who is the Belle of the Gibson?

    Annabelle Natalie Gibson. Oh, I love the name Annabelle, though. Or Belle, was born in 1991 in Tasmania, and that is a fact that wasn't really known until a few years ago, because she often claimed to be born in 1989. To be older? Yeah.

    Why? There's more on that later. Alright. In Australia I'm trying to say young. I'm trying to say youthful.

    It is very weird that By 2 years. I know. Okay. Alright. Sure.

    So this is my sister. She's my sister's age. Yes. Wait. She was born 91?

    Erin. Yeah. Oh, my god. I know. Crazy.

    So in Australia's Women's Weekly Magazine in 2015, she had claimed to have never known her father and grew up caring for her mother who was afflicted by multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue and for an autistic brother in Brisbane. She said, quote, when I started school, my mom went my daughter's grown up now. All of a sudden, I was walking to school on my own, making school lunches, and cleaning the house every day. It was my responsibility to do the grocery shopping, do the washing, arrange medical appointments, and pick up my brother. I didn't have toys.

    The magazine calls it implausibly Dickensian. What? I don't even know what that means. What? Dickensian?

    Like, or not samosa? Oh, I'm Like Oliver? What? Like Oliver? No.

    And honestly Dickensian? All of our 12 listeners are not gonna also know what Dickensian means. Hunter for sure would. Hunter, shut up. No.

    But when it's Dickensian with con But implausibly. Imple so, like, like, oh, okay. Yeah. It's doubtful. Doubtful.

    Yeah. But it's an Australian magazine. So implausibly Dickensian feels like Feels like the right okay. Feels like the right Australian. My mother.

    It's like it's like, okay, we're calling bullshit without saying calling bullshit. Because it sounds like a really fucking hard life. Okay. So what we do know is that she grew up with she did grow up with a single mother who indeed have MS. Her brother was not autistic.

    And her mother claims, and I can't verify that she's even a credible source, but she claims all this bullshit, and she worked herself basically into an early grave to provide for Belle and her brother. Oh my god. So in 2006 Okay. Silent burp burp through your nose. That was a nose burp if I've ever seen one.

    Those ones make my eyes water. Oh my god. Is there water? But also, like, I felt it in my soul. It rose rose from the depths.

    So in 2006, she was attending Wenham State High School in Brisbane. A former student said that Belle, made up a cancer story while there to try to stop her boyfriend at the time for breaking up with her. Another school friend says that she was a drama queen and there was always something going on. At one stage, she oh, this is a quote. At one stage, she was an emo, then a skater girl, then she was a surfer chick.

    She was always something different. That same friend also said Belle never mentioned an autistic brother or a mother with multiple sclerosis. Many former classmates have come forward, that she was constantly pushing anti vaccination claims. She claimed to have been a test tube baby. Oh my god.

    She has she claimed to be the witness protection program. Oh my god. So nobody's gonna she's a zero credibility, 0 anything. And she's gonna just lie through her teeth to anybody that will listen is what it sounds like. Test tube baby is, like, what really got me because I was like, I don't know.

    She also claimed to be severely overweight, but showed photos of her through her childhood. There's that's never the case. Okay, girl. Same. Because I feel like I had like, I remember thinking in high school, I was, like, the heaviest I've ever been.

    And, oh god. And the 2nd pictures, and then you're like, oh god. I would literally die to be my I actually don't wanna ever be that skinny again. But I remember thinking I was like, oh my god. I'm so fat.

    I hate that word, by the way. Why'd you say it was such vigor? Because I was like, I channeled my high school self, and I was like, meh. And I wasn't. No.

    And yeah. Okay. Go ahead. I also think it's a product of the era that we grew up in. I'm wondering.

    It was, like, very much, like, you're Jennifer Aniston or you're shit. Literally. Do you remember okay. Jessica Alba, when she came out with Honey or whatever. Yeah.

    Just the tiniest little beautiful body. Yeah. But not mine. Right? Like, no.

    No. Never. No. My body I could have been in the most tip top shape. No.

    My body will never be that. So A 100% mine would never be that. I so, tangent alert, I love that the kids these days are growing up in an era where everybody is beautiful Yeah. Because we didn't get that. Yeah.

    Okay. Okay. Okay. Sorry. So, Belle dropped out out her sophomore year of high school and moved to Perth.

    And she started to work in a call center at a private health insurer where she would heal hear details of clients' ailments. She said, quote, I was hearing some horrible things about what people were going through, and it's fair to question whether or not this is where she kind of picks up. I was just gonna lot of the information that she kind of carries with her down the road. Of she's like, oh, wait. This is what they're saying?

    And this is the the attention Mhmm. They're getting? Like, she's oh, gosh. She's she's like the worst. I'm already feeling like she's the worst.

    Because I feel like she's gonna prey on good people and, like, for all the sympathies and just yeah. I could okay. I feel that. I feel your face too. La la la la la la la la.

    So wait. It's kinda so does mister Saunders, does he have an Australian accent? Yeah. So it's perfect. It is perfect.

    At least yeah. Listen to the audio, bud. Okay. So here in Perth is where she got involved in the local skateboarding scene. Not sure if she skated, which is fine.

    But she was so she was a poser. Okay? I don't know. I don't care. I'm not sure.

    She doesn't strike me as a person who skated, but, like, I don't know. What do I know? Mhmm. I'm not gonna gatekeep, who I think is Yeah. Can be a skater or whatever.

    But, anyway, so she was on the message boards on skateboard.com.au. Which is why I feel like maybe she didn't skate. Oh, god. And this is where she started posting about her illnesses. So, in May 2009, on the skateboard.com.au forum Oh, my.

    Dotau, she said, quote, tomorrow afternoon, I go back into hospital for round 3 of heart surgeries. I'm not surgeries all of a sudden? I'm not. I know. I'm not worried about the cancer.

    I'm worried about the heart disease and brain clotting. Well, last time I had this procedure, I went into cardiac arrest, so, yeah. I've died before. I'm putting up a fight, but, hey, chemo and 3 heart procedures might kill me. She's so fucking exhausting.

    Honest to God. You've never been this done so quick. Yeah. Like, oh my God. I cannot with her already.

    And all this fake sympathy that she's, like, reaching out for makes me wanna just find her face and punch it. I know. Literally. It's so good. Oh.

    The punchability. Punchability is strong. So the next day, she posts, quote Fuck. I had surgery surgery 7 hours ago. In the midst of a blackout, cyclone and storms in Perth.

    What just woke up? I just woke up out of a coma type thing. I had no idea what was going on. The nurse came in when the alarms went off to say I was no longer in code blue or something. They fussed around for a bit and then asked for my next of kin details because I didn't put anyone down.

    I refuse to give details because I have a gnarly mom. Anyway, the doctor comes in and tells me that the draining failed, and I went into cardiac arrest and died for just 3 minutes. I have the most intense bruising from the paddles where they electrocuted me back into consciousness When and went straight into a coma situation for 6 hours and woke up crying for my iPhone. Oh, my fuck. Thank you.

    What? Honestly? I've never read it out loud. It far is like a worse or down. When I read it out loud, it's bad.

    But when I read it out loud, it's like It was bad for me too. Not because you read it, but it sounded so bad. Like, I was mad at you for a second. I was moving my Uber at you. They electrocuted your back and consciousness.

    Fuck off. My iPhone. Oh my god. Because my mom is gnarly. Literally.

    She is so exhausting already. This is, like, the type of person where I already am, like, fuck to the no. Nope. Not even gonna even Yeah. Entertain.

    I will not entertain. No. Zeros. I'm giving zeros. And the fact that she's like oh my gosh.

    She's like an OG catfisher. Probably not that OG because she's like my sister's age. But you know what I mean. It wasn't that, like, the catfish guy? Like, wasn't that we were in what you're saying?

    Like, she just was, like, reaching out to the people on the interwebs being, like, oh, I fucking died. And then Yeah. Probably did all these, you know, survived a storm in my coma. God. Mid 2009, she moves to Melbourne.

    In October 2009, she tweets, quote, Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. This is more fucked than the government giving me cancer. Oh. When asked after everything had come out about all this and what, like, asked what this tweet meant. She's like, I don't I don't even know.

    She's like, cannot. Must have been must have been the chemo talking. Uh-huh. God. In January 2010, she became pregnant and starts posting to the message boards on what to expect.com, which have you ever been on the message boards?

    Yeah. It is. They're Oh, fucking terrifying. Insane. Yes.

    It's insane. And it's a very, like, responsive community. Like, when I was pregnant, like, when I was pregnant and when the kids were little, like, that's where you for the first thing that pops up when you, like, oh, pregnant? What do you expect? How do you expect it?

    Pain in my side. Fear of the bone. Am I dying? And then, like, there's some message board where someone's, like, yes. You're certainly dying.

    Go to the doctor. Make sure you can feel the baby kicking. Like, it's all fear mongering. Is that what I mean? Yeah.

    It's all that. And and it's it's so crazy because, like, you want to be like, oh, like, I wanna find you really have to, like, be level headed enough to read between the bullshit Mhmm. And and understand what's real and what's not. Yeah. Message words, I think, are always just volatile as fuck.

    Oh, gosh. I mean, I think that there's, like, some that are, like, kind and, like, there are people that are there supportive and they're Mhmm. But in my experience, I have always been like alpha. Well, this is the thing. You, like, you and this is not what she you know, you really have to find your people, and you're not gonna find your people on a message board.

    You really are not. Like, people who are like minded or, you know and it's okay to, like, disagree with people, obviously, but, like, if you have a what the fuck moment so many times, maybe it's just not what you should be, you know, like Yeah. Pivot, figure out a different, you know, outlet or whatever. But Yeah. So it makes sense that she is on this message board.

    All these mothers So she's saying to her pregnant. Involved in the community and also fully immerse herself in the narrative of having cancer and all the complications that come with it and worrying about the baby, and so she elicits sympathy by lamenting that she doesn't have a support system. She's like, oh, I see all you girls getting ready for your baby shower, and I don't have any family, and no one is gonna come up here, and I'm just alone. I don't have any money. And just, like, being I'm sure super.

    She got all sorts of shit. Because this is the thing. Yeah. When there is no tribe like a mom tribe, and I think that's true. I really do.

    People who will just throw everything to the wayside to help another mom Mhmm. Like, it's it's real. So I feel like she's just sucking in all of that. These are, like, high emotions, high hormonal, like, all the you know, who are just happy to and, like, feel, like, gifted enough to be, you know, like, they they would get a gift by giving Yeah. Thing.

    I don't know how to explain it. Yeah. She kind of reminds me of, on What We Do With the Shadows, the emotional vampire. Vanessa Beta's character. Yeah.

    Where they're like what do you do? She's like sob story with, like, everything. Oh, that's your dog is so cute. My dog died. My dog died.

    He had, like, a really rare form of cancer and then got hit by a car. The stomach just kept eating itself. Yes. And then he had a good day, and then he got hit by a car. Like, that's what, like, she kind of reminds me of is that almost exact character.

    It makes me sad because I feel like these are, like, new moms who are just, like, so heart forward, and she's literally all of their joy. Yeah. Because they're like, oh, I feel so bad for this person. For her. I just like, oh, I wanna be there for her.

    Or, you know, whatever. Yeah. And then she's gonna keeps playing the violin to that tune because she's loving all of it. Yeah. So I hate her.

    She gives birth to her baby sometime in early to early 2010. So she really was pregnant. Is baby Baby's fine. Okay. Baby's fine.

    So she gives birth to a son with her then boyfriend, Nathan Corbit. I do know the baby's name, but I'm not going to, post it because he's a baby still. So not a baby still. He's Well, it's cute. We protect the babies.

    Yeah. By all accounts, she was actually a very good and loving mother. Okay. This is what I'm gonna say. No.

    The fuck she isn't. Because if she's that Yeah. Then the damage that she's gonna do to the I'm sure the child is long then. I'm sure the child is Yeah. Right now, okay.

    There's gonna be some shit where this there's gonna be unreversible damage. Yes. At this point, yes. That sucks. Because of her actions.

    But by most accounts, she was a very doting mother. Maybe that's maybe that's the more appropriate. Yeah. She's a very doting mother. Okay.

    2011, she went in for a neurological assessment following complaints of, eye pain, slurred speech, and memory loss, and she was told everything was fine. Yeah. Because the neurologist wrote to her GP that the symptoms are most likely just a result of being an exhausted new mom. And, she and her boyfriend split in 2012, but remained very good friends. She was involved in many natural parenting groups on Facebook in Melbourne.

    And around this time, she started brainstorming ideas for her health and wellness app, and even put out a poll on her group to help name it. So in 2012, she says that she suffers a miscarriage at 5 months with her new partner, Clive Rothwell. She says this was the impetus of starting her Instagram account to share about the loss and her cancer journey, and she maintains that the miscarriage actually did happen. But on May 13th, she lip she launches her Instagram account healing_bell, and her bio read, Belle Gibson, game changer with brain cancer plus a food obsession. The fuck?

    Mhmm. And at this time, Instagram was still very community driven. It wasn't as much like like, now like, I feel like maybe 5 years later Yeah. There was a lot more influencers. Influencers.

    But, like, at this time, it was still, like, the comments were very, like, like, Facebook like, Facebook groups was still a big thing. It, like, there was a lot of conversations going on. Mhmm. All the comments, people would reply back. Yeah.

    Like, whoever's It wasn't so, like It wasn't like The big animal that it is. It is. It wasn't it was just a different time. Mhmm. And, sure.

    Her account kinda looks like that Bo Burnham, wild woman Instagram. That was her Instagram. You know what I mean? Where it's just like, pictures of the moon, shadow of a flower. It was like, that was it.

    Oh. Looking over what Sean's name. It that was like her Instagram was, like, a white woman's Instagram. Oh, okay. There was, like, inspirational quotes, post of foods, little snippets of her and her son.

    On Facebook, she told she told her community she was healing her malignant brain cancer with natural medicine, Gerson therapy, and food. Gerson therapy is based on the belief that the disease is caused by an accumulation of toxins and attempts to treat the disease by having patients consume a mostly vegetarian diet, including hourly glasses of organic juice and various dietary supplements. No animal proteins are allowed in the diet, under the unproven premise that tumors develop as a result of paint of pancreatic enzyme deficiency. In addition, patients receive enemas of coffee, castor castor oil, and sometimes, hydrogen peroxide or ozone. And they're just gonna literally shove coffee up your bunghole.

    Yeah. Ozone. Ozone. Like, like, isn't that just air? I'm so confused.

    Is that just Is it like air from space? Did somebody go up there and jar it? Did they jar it just so you did it? Shove it up your asshole? Is that what happened?

    Pausey, castor oil, and just space air. I feel like if you never mind. Oh, I'm gonna say it sounds like you would shit so well. Well, no. I was gonna say you'd probably fucking die.

    Like but that's, never mind. Are you thinking of putting blood in your air in your blood? Oh, no. I don't understand. But I'm not, like, I'm not one to shit on hippy dippy.

    Right? But no. Does not work. Does not match. Like, it cannot.

    Does not compute. Does not compute. Another another player in this space at the time Yes. Was a woman named Jess Ainsko, who went by the handle, the wellness warrior. She received a very rare diagnosis of epithelioid sarcoma in 2,008 when she was only 22.

    My eyes see numbers, and it, like, discombobulates. Yeah. And I'm like, in my brain. Anyway, so Ainsco, after initially doing a round of chemo, turned to alternative treatments, including that Gerson therapy. She had a massive a massive, massive following, including Belle Gibson, and she was proof of concept that the narrative could be financially lucrative, because she was, like, holding a fence.

    She had, like, she she was raking it in. She wrote a book. She had a blog. Belle, following kind of this same road map, and that's this 20,000 fall or no. Sorry.

    20,000. 200,000 followers in the 1st 3 months. What the fuckage? No. That's insane.

    And this was back when, like, I don't even think that you could get, like, bots to To, like, bot. Yeah. Bots weren't botton yet. No. Bots weren't botton.

    These were humans. So followers were, like, in awe of this woman who had gone through so much, has brain cancer, yet she is like this glowing picture of health. Yeah. She's just like they're like, wow. Like, her nail beds look amazing.

    She doesn't have circles in her eyes. She's not tired. She's doing all this. Like, she's just staring at me. And and you know what?

    These followers are probably people who desperate. Yes. And you were like, oh, she's a beacon of hope. Yeah. So August 2013, Belle launches the whole Pantry app.

    It's at to advocate healthy eating. It was downloaded 200,000 times on the 1st day. Oh. It's voted Apple's best food and drink app of 2013. Oh.

    Often, she's credited as a developer. She said that she, like, went and learned coding real quick. Fucking But she really hired freelancers on the cheap, and the app was actually very beautiful. And that is to the credit of the developers, Alex Scott? Yeah.

    Alex Benevento and Christopher Horner with designer Zane David, who Thank you. I just wanted to shout them out, because they did a good job. Zane designer Zane David said that she used her cancer to get discounts in their services. That's fucking disgusting. Yes.

    So being married to a developer, you would understand that, like designer. Sorry. Do I In and out. Whatever. In and out.

    In and out. In and out. But that would be like Tommy doing all this hard work on something. Literally, that happens all the time. It's pretty common space.

    Credit. Yeah. That's pretty common space for Fucking nasty. I know. So during this time, her star was rising.

    Mhmm. She was like the shit. Her her followers, like, the count rose, and she became an authority on treating your own cancer. She would post about goji berries and mangosteen powder, about drinking coconut milk to hydrate your connective tissue, which is not a thing. And I saw some of the super misinfo.

    Mhmm. Her personal trainer was, like, please stop. You need to quit it. He's like, you need to stop. All these people.

    He's like, you are It's an abusive Doubting off shit that's not true. He's like, coconut milk does not hydrate your connective tissue. That is not it. It is not it. It's not a thing.

    So she was recruited by Apple to work on a top secret project, and at the time, they were developing the Apple Watch, and wanted the whole pantry app to be featured and preloaded onto all the devices. Oh my god. What is that for? That's a big Yes. It was a huge deal.

    So, they flew out to Cupertino. They, like, gave her the whole, like, song and dance. She had her own team there, and, she began to help develop, like, the app that would be on the watch, which I never had the app. So I don't exactly know how it would work on your watch. Yeah.

    I don't know. Or I didn't have the app, so I don't know. Anyway, she also got a cookbook deal through Lantern Books, which is a a subsidiary of Penguin, and developed a close relationship with the team there, sending them thoughtful gifts and charming little, like, charming little trinkets all the time. Yeah. And then, of course, she, like, had her whole, like, oh, I have brain cancer and, like Sprinkle that in.

    Yeah. And so everyone was like, oh my god. She's so sweet and so thoughtful and, like, this poor girl that she's been through, she's so strong. So she fundraises and promotes her app by claiming sales would be donated to various charities, like school building in Sierra Leone, support for mothers and their babies in developing countries, protecting asylum seekers, human rights, and the family of Joshua Schwarz, a terminally ill 5 year old boy who needed life saving treatment overseas. Belle had befriended Penny, the boy's mother, and the 2 had become very, very close.

    That's I know. So this is the thing. This is how I feel. I feel like she's doing a lot of great things under the wrong guys. Right?

    Is that the right way to say that? Like, I feel like like sure. She's, like, raising money for people who really need it and, like, trying to oh, no. Okay. Now I'm mad at her.

    Now I'm fucking mad because it doesn't feel like that's where this is going. Because she's gonna take all their monies and rip everybody off. Oh my god. I haven't gotten there yet. Fuck.

    I haven't gone there yet. I hate her. I literally hate her as complete. So are. I knew I hated her the second you started describing her.

    The second. I honestly so I feel like I I did. So, like, when I was writing this, have that moment of, like, should I write her, like, all this is true? And I just couldn't do it. No.

    I couldn't do it because I was like, oh, it would be really fun if you made you think all this was true. And then I was like, just so messed up. And then I would literally go home feeling like distraught. And then, like, and then I was like, I can't. Like, I can't.

    Well, you could not straight face tell me that all the shit was, like No. And, honestly, even if I did, none of it added up, and you would have smelled you would have you would have smelled that shit. Flags are like Yeah. Alert. Alert.

    Alert. Alert. In early to mid 2014, she hosted a birthday party for her son. The Schwarz family was in attendance. You know, that little boy there Mhmm.

    That I'm out. And as guests were leaving, she dropped to the floor and started to violently convulse. Was it real? Seizures lasted 40 minutes intermittently. She was probably just spazzing out.

    And she laid on the floor as guests stroked her forehead and encouraged her to get better and were like, it's okay. It's all better. Her son was there. Joshua Schwarz was there. I got her son.

    They they sent them upstairs. They had to step over her body as it was convulsing to, like, get the kids away. So fucked up. How scary for these kids. Yeah.

    Terrifying. Yeah. And so a lot of people were like, we need to call an ambulance, and they were like, no, no, she doesn't like dealing with, like, traditional doctors. No, like, don't call an ambulance. And then she, like, would be like, oh, no.

    Like dealing with doctors who can call her on her shit. Yeah. She's like, I'm fine. Please don't. I'm fine.

    I just need rest. I just need That was me. I don't know if that was me doing, Belle Gibson or me doing, the mom's The mom from Bluey House. Or James Sondrup. James Sondrup.

    The best narrator ever. I know. So on July 29, 2014, Belle announced on her Instagram that her cam her cancer had spread. She said, quote, with frustration and ache in my heart, it hurts me to find space tonight to let you all know with love and strength. Fuck her.

    I'm so mad at her that I've been diagnosed with a 3rd and 4th cancer. She said the brain had spread to her blood, spleen, brain, uterus, and liver. It was news to the teens at both Apple and Lantern, as well as all of her friends. So, like, she posted, if this were true, she posted this on Instagram before telling told anybody anybody. That she cared about.

    Yes. Or quote unquote cared about. On September 14th, Apple announced her app will be featured on its, like, on the new watch. It was like a big announcement, a big thing, and then, maybe a week or two later, her friend, Chanel McAuliffe and Jared Briffa, drove to Belle's house, only call her 5 minutes before they arrive to tell her that they're coming, and just Jared asks, is there anything you wanna tell us? Is there anything you've been untruthful about?

    Like, we're your friends, we won't judge you. We love you. Save space. Yeah. And then, Chanel is just like, are you even sick?

    Do you have cancer? Who's Chanel? Yes. She is the hero of this whole story. And then Belle was incredulous, and she was like, of course, I have cancer.

    How dare you? And then Chanel asked, like, what like, about the doctor that gave her the recent diagnosis. She's like, who Who is this doctor? Doctor? And she says, doctor Phil.

    Fuck you. And she was like, are you fucking serious? You're gonna tell me it was doctor Phil. The doctor Phil? And she claimed that he picked her up, took her to his practice.

    She didn't know where this practice was. She don't know what she doesn't know what happened to doctor Phil because he disappeared. Fuck you. And that she said that he was she was told that his practice is his practice was questionable by someone who used to work there. And so then Chanel was like, okay.

    Well, so if he was questionable, don't you think that your diagnosis is questionable? Don't you wanna second opinion? And she's like, I'm just too busy. And she's like, okay. Well Too busy.

    Yeah. Too busy so I can find out the deets about your entire well-being? Yeah. She's like, I've got the app and I've got the book. And she's like, what about your son?

    Doesn't he deserve to know if his mother is, like, really dying of cancer? And she's like, I just don't have time. So then Chanel goes upstairs. Time to find out if you have cancer. This is the thing.

    It doesn't the math ain't mathing, bitch. The math ain't math then. So fucking annoyed by her. Yeah. So then Chanel goes upstairs where Clive, her boyfriend Boyfriend.

    Is putting, like, her son down, and she's, like, I need to know what's going on. Does she have cancer? And then she said he was quiet for a very long time, and then he says, I need to protect that little boy. And she was like, protect him from what? And he's like, she's not sick, and she will just try to destroy anyone that tries to expose her.

    Oh my. And that's where we leave off. Go fuck off. What? Oh my god.

    Oh my god. I know. Chanel's a bad bitch. She is a bad bitch. And she's gonna get to the bottom of this.

    I know. And I feel like her boyfriend I don't know. If it's her boyfriend. Whoever this man is. Clive.

    Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Clive is gonna come out because he's here to protect the baby. I'm a little unclear about what his role is, But, I did in the book, they did mention that, like, he actually did think that she had cancer for a very long time.

    Oh, no. I'm sure. And then And then, I feel like he started sniffing her out and being like, shoot. Well, his father got cancer. And he saw his father go through cancer.

    And he's like, that was like not like that. One thing here is not like the other. And it's not, to be fair, like, for every like And so somehow, it's always the same. Right? Goes back just for the just for the son.

    That I mean, which is cool, but, I mean, I think he's still with her. So What? Yeah. Today? Spoiler alert.

    Yeah. Nope. Nope. Oh, no? Nope.

    How are you with somebody that you know is complete bullshit? No. No. I don't know. That don't worth Literally, I would've 2 seconds in, I would've been like, not my people.

    Goodbye. I can't. No. What should we call this one? I should have been thinking about I do this every time.

    I do this every time. The worst human being is spiritually fucked. She's worse. She's the worst human that might possibly She is the leachiest. Chanel goona tell.

    Chanel gonna tell. Chanel gonna tell. Goddamn. Okay. She's the worst.

    Thank you for listening. Yes. Stay tuned for part 2. Please follow us on Instagram at SpirituallyFTodcast. Rate and view our podcast.

    It really helps. And that is all. We will see you next week. Thank you. Bye.

    Bye. Bye.

  • What are we gonna call this one? I can't. Sonbantu is spiritually fucked. They don't even want her. They don't even want you.

    Ethiopia rejects Belle Gibson. Wait. Wait. No. Wait.

    Dude, it's been so dry. It's so dry. My feet have looked like I just stepped in chalk. Literally, when I took a bath earlier oh my god. Don't look at my ankles.

    When did that go in here? See Jess' ankles right now. Don't see my ankles. They're so ashy. Don't see the ankle through the pot.

    I was literally bathing and scratching my ankles, feeling skin. Actually, though, satisfying. It was really satisfying. I was like, oh, no. Yes.

    With, like, so yeah. So good. So good. So good. Because then you know it's gone.

    Exactly. It's like super exfoliation. Yeah. Just yeah. I think it's been, like, so dry.

    It's been yeah. Being in a profession where you're ashy Dry feet are in people's face. Where, like, you're walking by. Yeah. And I can't Eyesight, your feet are in eyelid.

    Oh, my God. I know. Also, I, like, have not shaved my legs. So, like, right around my ankles Neither. My hair on my legs.

    I'm, like, oh, I'm sorry you get ashy and Well, I wore a skirt, like, a week and a half ago at work, but, like Yeah. You know, like, at the knee. And so my leg hair is, like, from my thigh, from the knee up. Yeah. I mean, you could braid them, but, like, they're just prickly Yeah.

    Down low. Have you seen those tights that, like, look like you're wearing sheer black leggings, but they're really, like like, fleece lined, like Yeah. Leggings? Yeah. I have.

    No. No. You're not home to? I can't. For work?

    No. When it's freezing? It sounds so hot. I'm indoors in San Diego. Oh, I would have gotten down on that in San Francisco.

    That's what I'm saying. I feel like it's a, like, a somewhere else type thing. But, you know, I'm fighting with the AC all the time. But I feel like we were so like, last winter was, like, really cold. So I feel like it might be cold again this winter.

    So when we last left off, Belle Gibson was flying very close to the sun. Like most other people that we've covered on this podcast, she was Icarus. Icarus. We've used that multiple times now. Too close.

    Right? I'm way too close to the sun. Yeah. So she had launched her app, had an exclusive spot on the new Apple Watch, had hundreds of thousands of adoring followers, and a book that was about to come out in spring of 2014. And this is in Australia, so it's actually American fall, which I had a very hard time wrapping my head around because they they kept being, like so in they kept mentioning September, and they would be, like, later that spring.

    You're like And I was like, what? What? What? Yeah. So spring in Australia is American fall.

    That's wild. Okay. Yeah. So the seasons, is it kinda Naturally. It makes sense when I hold my hands in a ball and shift it like this for you?

    It actually makes way more sense Yeah. With when you do that. Yeah. Thank you. So in the spring of 2014, again, American Fall, Belle's good friends have driven to her house to confront her about her cancer claims.

    Chanel Belle tells Belle the book is about to come out, people are gonna pay money for that, and people who are sick are gonna read that. Do you really feel comfortable that this is going out into the world, and you don't even know that your diagnosis is correct? That's a real friend, by the way. Mhmm. That's and that's a real, like, solid person for the public.

    Like Yeah. Fuck being homegirl's friend, but she's standing up for what's right. Yeah. And then she, she said, quote, this is your inner circle knocking at your door. It starts here and it can end here.

    Thank you. No. Yes, girl. Yeah. Basically, she just was like, no.

    No. No. I still have cancer. Yeah. She even invited she was like, told her, natural therapist to come over, and so the natural therapist comes over and she's like tell them tell them I have cancer.

    And he's like, well, I mean, I'm not qualified to diagnose you, but you told me you have cancer. You told me you have cancer, so I think You thought you did have to believe you. Right? But then he said, like, as she was talking, he's it, like, slowly started to dawn on him that she's like, fuck no. She doesn't have cancer.

    And he was like, I had even mentioned she had even mentioned she had multiple heart surgeries. And then he's like and then she did this, like, photo like, this photo shoot and I could see her chest. And I was like, oh, you have no scars. Where are your scars? And he was like, oh, it was microscopic.

    Fuck you. And he was like No. It doesn't. The again, math ain't mathing. Yeah.

    He was like, it's not he's like, what's going on? With heart who have had heart surgery, and there is a very clear scar. Yeah. And even the ones who have, like and not that I've seen many, but, like, I've seen scars that are, like, very big and be very slight, but you can still see a scar. Yeah.

    I know. So he was, like, it wasn't adding up. No. I was, like, the more she talked, the more he was, like, oh, no. She a 100%.

    Bad news bears. Does not have cancer. Bad news bears. Yeah. So they left and, you know, Jared and Chanel were like, we hope that you do the right thing, but they got in the car and They're like, she's not gonna do the right thing.

    Chanel, all she's saying was holy fucking shit. Yeah. Like, what the fuck is happening? She's gone she's too deep. She is too committed to this story line where she's No.

    Absolutely not gonna do the right thing too deep. So on the night before the book launch, Belle told the director at Lantern Books, Julie Gibbs, that a jealous friend had turned on her, which Gibbs knew meant, like, someone is saying that her claims of having cancer weren't real. But the book launch went on anyway. Oh, my God. October of 2014, the cookbook is released.

    She and in it, so like in the foreword, stop. Yeah. In so in the forward, she claims that in 2009, she received the Gardasil HPV cervical cancer vaccination and had an adverse reaction and suffered a stroke at work. She then was introduced to a man named doctor Mark Johns, a neurologist and immunologist at Melbourne's Peter McCallum Cancer Center. There's no evidence that this person ever existed.

    The Peter the Peter McCollum Cancer Center has no record of him being employed at the facilities there, and no doctor by that name is registered in the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. She just pulled a name out of a name book. Yeah. Belle says, quote, I will never forget sitting alone in the doctor's office waiting for my test results. He called me in and said, you have malignant brain cancer, Belle.

    You're dying. You have 6 weeks, 4 months tops. Worst bedside manner if this is a person that actually existed. I mean, but it's not because and she did this to, like, drama To dramatize it. Thank you.

    But I was like, the fuck? The No doctor would be like, you're dying, Belle. You're dying. That my osteoics. I don't know what that was.

    Honestly, I tried to do bluey I feel like I was like, you're dying, Belle, but it was, like, also New York. Down there? No. I just no. No.

    Edit it out. Edit it out. Cut that. Cut that. So Belle's book was a super success.

    She was invited to speak around the world telling her can see can see cancer story to crowds of people who looked at her as a source of inspiration. In a new documentary by the BBC, it features 3 women, all who have different types of cancer who had She's one of them? No. Oh, no. This is new.

    Sorry. This is a new documentary. Sorry. Sorry. Came out with you last week.

    Oh, sorry. Sorry. Missed that. There was 3 women, all who have different types of cancers, who had shirked conventional medicine to follow Gibson's regimen and heal themselves. Okay.

    So so great. Like, no. Because it was fake. They had conventional treatment, and they were like, this is That's what you just who has brain cancer is healing herself with food. I can do the same thing.

    I literally stopped. Yeah. Okay. So I'm I'm misunderstanding that. Okay.

    One woman interviewed for the Aussie paper, The Age, has had used Belle's cookbook to help her father with his cancer symptoms, and he passed away sooner than his prognosis. So she's yeah. Her influence has only worsened. Yeah. November I literally when you sorry.

    Yeah. You thought that they were like, oh. Yeah. I'm like, cool. If you're eating healthier and that somehow has, like, turned some shit around, I don't know.

    I mean, I don't think so. And I think this is what what kinda comes into play a little bit later is that, like, Apple so once everything kinda comes out, Apple doesn't do anything for a little bit. And the cookbook people, they don't do anything for a little bit. And I think that their argument is, like, this is a cookbook, or, like, this these are rest the collection of recipes. This isn't this isn't a book on how to cure your cancer.

    This is a cookbook. However, because she claims all of these things, and because her social media presence was, like, I cured my cancer. Yeah. Follow me and do all the things that I do. That's how it's gonna give you helpful.

    So in November of 2014, Belle was awarded Cosmopolitan Magazine Cosmopolitan Magazine's fun fearless female award in the social media category. Elle Australia published an interview with Gibson under the headline, the most inspiring women you've met this year. Early 2015, Chanel reaches out to a journalist at The Age or reaches out to a journalist at The Age. That journalist tags in Beau Donnelly and Nick Toscano, who wrote the book that has the amazing narration by James Saunders, our favorite Aussie now. Mhmm.

    With the Daniel Radcliffe job. So they got the tip, and they were kinda like, like, it sounded a little like sketch. And so, they assumed this was, like, a disgruntled ex employee that was gonna be like, she's a bitch. Yeah. But once they interviewed Chanel, they were like, oh.

    Holy shit. Yes. This this lady knows what's up. Her dad, I believe, was a detective. So, she was, like, things are adding up.

    Yeah. Here's why. Let me tell you. And this if it gets out, people will, like, you people need to know that she's a fake. Yeah.

    They need to know that they can't heal their cancer. Right. Because she's she's going off of bullshit. And these people have really have issues. Like, these people really have health concerns.

    And so they did their due diligence. They sent a screenshot of Bell's announcement that the cancer had spread out to a bunch of oncologists to see, like, hey, what is the best thing to do? And, like So many were, like, nah, bitch. This isn't that's not how cancer works. No.

    This is not you know, this is very skeptical and very implausible that this is a woman who has cancer. Right. They tracked down 5 people from her inner circle that were all doubting her diagnosis, but no one wanted to go on To the record. To come forward because they were like, if she does have cancer, then we're asked. We're fucked up.

    Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But all of these people said they had never seen her go to the doctor. They'd never seen her take medicine.

    They all believed they she faked her seizure at the party, which tracks Yeah. Because she probably did. But, yeah, but no one wanted to say anything because Because it's it's you know, it's it's a dick move. Like, how like, this is the thing. Nobody ever wants to doubt somebody's sickness because, like, god forbid, what the fuck?

    Yeah. But, also, it's like it takes somebody to be like, woah. This smells like shit. Yeah. This isn't feeling right.

    Yeah. And it takes a strong enough Chanel to be like, no. People are getting duped. Yeah. Well, especially too because I think that what I admire about Chanel is that she gave her the opportunity.

    She was so distant and here. She wasn't talking shit. She wasn't, like, going to the press behind her back. She was, like, you need to own a friend of a friend. And if it's not, then we'll work through this together.

    Yeah. We'll figure it out. I'm not gonna just leave you high and dry. She's just gonna lie to my face, then, like, this cannot this is unsafe. Then now she's making the choice to be, like, you know, and putting a lot of people in harm.

    Yeah. So, Toscano and Donnelly, they ran the story up the chain at the age, and they were, like, no, you can't run this. That no one wanted to go on record. You have to find a new angle, but their chief of staff was, like, okay. If she's lying about this, what else is she lying about?

    Mhmm. So he gave them a few days to keep digging, which at the time was, like, a huge deal because they don't have very many resources that the paper Well, and you can't find, like, HIPAA. Right? The HIPAA like, you can't find any any information on HIPAA's the thing there. But no.

    Wait. As oh, just like Australia. Australia. Uh-huh. I don't know what that was.

    Don't me neither. Sorry. All all 12 listeners who are not from Australia. But their chief of staff gave them a few days, so they didn't have to look far because her charitable claims, which she built her company on, were all bogus. She so, March 8, 2015, the age This is gonna be my favorite part.

    Came out. It reported that she failed to give away profits from her book as promised to various charities. Most of these organizations hadn't heard of her or received guidance. Thank you. Thank you.

    Family whose son was sick with cancer and whom she kind of inserted her life, like, putting herself into their lives, did not know that she was promoting anything using their name and had never received any money either. That's so fucking nasty. Mhmm. Is their son? No.

    He did not make it. I know. Very sad. That is really sad. Prior to print, Donnelly and Toscano had reached out to Belle.

    They asked her about the donations and to clarify some questions. Belle wrote back that she was attending a funeral of a close friend and was not in the head space to deal, which that close friend was Jess Ainsco, the wellness warrior who had done Gerson Therapy before. She did not know her that well, but she showed up to the funeral and kind of, like, inserted herself there and, like, made a big scene with Ryan. All the she wanted all the the sorrow that she wanted the Yeah. What is it called?

    Everyone was, like, the sympathy. The sympathy she wanted to know. Everyone was, like, this is kind of very weird, but, again, everyone Everybody grieves differently. Everyone grieves differently. To, like Yeah.

    Be, like, oh, that's weird. She also had cancer, so maybe this was also bringing up some stuff of her own Within herself. And so it was just, like, a very weird situation. So, anyways, she's, like, I can't I'm at a funeral. I can't I have a close friend.

    Can't be there. I'm not in the headspace ideal, But here's a receipt for the thou a $1,000 donation to the charity 1 girl. That A $1,000? That she had made 10 hours earlier. Oh, if it Oh my gosh.

    She's just like, they're on my tail. Yeah. They're on my tail. I better start. Why would she have done that?

    No. Why? She's And so then she had gone on to explain that she hadn't donated because she was having all of these cash flow problems, and that an external accountant had come, and because the books weren't current, she was advised not to go through with the donations yet. So She's always got a reason. Right?

    Oh, she's always got a reason. A line. So to Donnelly and Toscano, they were like so usually when someone's caught in a lie, they either don't say anything, they say or they say very little. She wrote a 1,000 word response of all just kind of like, oh, I have an excuse for this, and, oh, I have an excuse for this, and here's my receipt that I've sent like 10 hours ago. It's very, very weird.

    Yeah. And it was very ineffective in explaining where any of the money had gone. March 9th, the next day, The Australian, the newspaper, reports the first doubts over Belle's cancer diagnosis. She claims herself and the headline, I believe oh, my gosh. I don't I can't believe I didn't put this in.

    Was, like, Belle Gibson cast doubts over her own cancer claims. The fuck. So she was, like, damage control mode. She's, like, maybe I don't have cancer. Maybe all these doctors were lying to me.

    Fuck off. So she says, so she says that the the recent announcement of her blood, spleen, brain, uterus, and liver cancer was due to a misdiagnosis, but the reporter popes, like, every hole in her narrative. And then the accusations they do. Yes. She just like, it makes no sense.

    It I am at a loss sometimes because the lying must have been exhausting. That's what I'm saying. Like, this disconnection from reality of, like, oh, like, who thinks, oh, I can spin this by saying I have a missed I was misdiagnosed. I can't imagine her going to bed, and she she must have some screws loose because she probably believes herself. I feel like that's the only way.

    Like, you know what I mean? Like, when you lie to yourself enough or you start believing, I've never done that, but I think it's a thing. No. It is a thing, but It doesn't. Fucking thing.

    Don't think so because the way that she pivots Yeah. I don't know. That she pivots. I don't know. I think she's she's just a fucking awful human.

    Yeah. That's the thing. I don't know how to compute that because I don't I'm not an awful human. I just Yeah. But I like, for somebody to be able to go to bed at night knowing she's caught in this crazy lie by the all of the Australia.

    All of the Australia? Yeah. Uh-huh. Is fucking wild to me. Yeah.

    So accusations spread like wildfire. Sources started coming out. Good. And it turned into a global situation. Good.

    In turn, both Gibson and the whole pantry social media accounts scrubbed any health claims from the Instagram and Facebook pages. Because they wanted all the liabilities to be, like They were, like, we gotta get rid of it, but there's already so many screenshots that are out there. And it's been out there. Yeah. And so Bell became, like, the most hated woman in the world.

    Right. Police are. There was she was getting death threats. People were livid because she lied about, like, having cancer. And she prayed on the, like unforgivable, but it was, like, the hope and the the praying on people that you Exactly.

    Who were, like, suffering was just, like She prayed on the hope that those people the last bit of hope that those people had. Yeah. She prayed on it. Yeah. It's fucking nasty.

    Penguin pulled her book after e like, after emails for her to elaborate went unanswered. Mhmm. However, Donnelly and Toscano reported that they were prepared for and had rehearsed talking points in case this had happened, and there's a video of the mock interview. I must. Yeah.

    They admitted to not confirming her claims because it was a cookbook, and because she wasn't doling out medical advice per se, but they still ended up having to pay fines in the long run to the Australian Consumer Law Fund for failing to validate the factual content of the Good. Yeah. Both Elle Australia and Cosmopolitan claimed they got tipped off earlier than the award ceremony and that big article they wrote, but they were like, we don't really know because I will say, I have read the Elle Australia tip Mhmm. Like, off, like, email that they got. Mhmm.

    And it's not Chanel, it's someone else. And they were, like, this woman is pure evil, and she does not have cancer. Like, it sounded crazy. Yeah. So you're, like, not gonna give too much attention.

    He take it with, like, a grain of salt because at that point, she had more validity than this person. It needed to be more objective. Then. Yes. For for the right, you know, for somebody to be open to the validity of And also they were, like, who lies about having cancer?

    Fucking nobody. Except for except for the worst people. That's not the case. Yeah. March 18th, so like 9 days later, Apple withdrew her app from the store and the Apple Watch showcase.

    Good. May 15th, she does an interview with Australian Women's Weekly titled, my lifelong struggle with the truth where she admits that she does not have cancer. Oh my god. Yes. My lifelong struggle with the truth.

    She lit I mean, if that if there's not a truer fucking title than that, she's been lying her whole life. Okay. But listen, because she lies through this whole interview. No. No.

    No. No. So So So So this is a quote from the article. So true. Okay.

    This is a quote from the article of Australia of Australia's, Women's Weekly. One of the most troubling aspects of Belle's response is that she appears to have little empathy. When Belle cries, her tears appear to be mostly for herself. That tracks. Yeah.

    The article is super brutal. Oh, good. But overall, it's not that bad compared to what's to come. In the article, she concedes the art so the article concedes she may be troubled or could be dealing with mental illness. They mentioned Munchausen syndrome, a factitious disorder in which a peep a person deceives others by appearing sick or making themselves sick.

    Yeah. They also verified the existence of doctor Phil. He was a real person. What? Oh god.

    He was a real person. So he was a real guy. He was treating her for cancer. She had him on a $600 a month retainer. However, she had been scanned recently enough to know that she didn't have cancer.

    So this might have been a guy that, again, she said, I have cancer, and he's like, okay. I'm losing you. Yeah. I don't know. It could have also been someone who was also just preying on her to get money and I mean, they're probably And she fighting each other.

    And maybe she was like, this is a scapegoat. I don't know. I wasn't there. So after the article, Belle was still upset about the public backlash over her lies. Like, she was like, I've done What do you mean upset?

    Yeah. Couldn't she see that what she did was wrong? No. Okay. Because she was like, I did so so much good.

    Oh. I encourage people to eat healthy and live healthier lives. I don't need to call myself. Going at first. I was like, okay.

    Well, she's encouraging people. Amazing things, but she didn't. No. Because she didn't give money. No.

    She wasn't encouraging people to help her. She was literally encouraging them to not have cancer Yeah. And that's impossible. It's literally imp like, she was feeding off of peep like, other people's illnesses and not paying the people that she said she was going to. Sorry.

    I don't know how to word this right. You're good. It's late. Dead. It's it's late.

    Yeah. It's late. But she was literally, like, stealing money. Yeah. Yeah.

    So soon after the women's weekly article came out, her mother also gave an interview and was like, she's a fucking liar. Oh, that feels good. Yeah. That feels great. Yeah.

    And then her mom was also kinda crazy. And, like, Donnelly and Toscano were, like, yeah. That's where she is. She kept being, like, you need to give me more money, and I'll, give you more info. But then we continue to just talk and talk and talk and give out all the info.

    Yeah. She's like, you know, they're like She was just like a piece of work and they were like Keep it coming. Keep it coming. That's not necessarily like so off that it was like a but just was like It was oh, god. Just like the non The apple did not fall far.

    So in June 2014, Belle decides to do a 60 minutes interview. Reportedly, it was paid 40 5,000. This is the thing. She keeps doing interviews. It was brutal.

    Yeah. I was gonna say, like, she just can't help herself. Like, she needs to go under a rock and just disappear. That is what, she was advised to do. And she won't because she loves she loves all the attention.

    Yeah. And the empathy that she's trying to get that she doesn't realize is, like, that ship has sailed. No. But she's gonna keep trying for it. So Alex Toomey, who is advisor, like, a corporate he's, like, basically, like, the skit like, on scandal.

    Right? He's like a fixer, kinda, or like an Olivia Pope. Yeah. He's like he helps, like, businesses kinda get out of these kind of situations. So he's the one that set up the women's weekly interview, and he was like, do not do television.

    It will be bad. This will be better. You just kind of need to do this. Say sorry, I was wrong, and then go hide. And then, go hide.

    Change your name. Yeah. Do whatever. So Find a rock. She does not do that because she again, it's still and she's still like completely she's like, do you think that the business can be saved?

    And he's like, fuck no. No. We cannot. Cut your losses and hide. Yeah.

    So she was And I'm being nice. Interview. What the fuck? She in it, she claims to believe that she had brain cancer the whole time. So she really wasn't deceiving anyone because she was suffering, because she thought that she had cancer.

    She just didn't. But she didn't know that she didn't. Oh, my God. And like The pain. And then the lady keeps being like, no, but you didn't have cancer, so you weren't suffering.

    And she's like, no, no, no. But I believe that I did. So you were emotionally suffering? Yeah. She's like, but you didn't.

    Were, like, were were the thoughts of having cancer, like, creating all of these ailments, like Yeah. She was like, but she didn't. So, like No. So then you so then So what fucking reality are you talking about? Because it's not it.

    Then, in the most brutal of exchanges, it's like the hardest to watch Is the host Did you watch it? I need to. Oh, my gosh. She asks, how old are you? And she's, like, 26.

    And she keeps being, like, how old are you? And she's like, I've had a lot of, a lot of birth certificates. And she's like, how old are you? And then she says, and this is a quote, I've always been raised as being currently a 26 year old. Oh.

    At the time, she was 23. Oh my god. She's, like, just could not. She could not. Oh my god.

    Brutal. You've done all of that in those, like can't. She can't truth she cannot truth to save her life. She'd given she'd been given so many. Even if she just was, like, 23.

    Who would the cameras? I thought you're aching it. Hershey. She's lying about the grass being green. So sweet.

    Literally. So the full interview is basically Tara Brown asking like, going through every online claim and being like, was this true? Wait. Who is this? This woman, Tara Brown.

    It's Australian, 60 miles per hour. I don't know what to say though. I was like, hold on. Hold on. Martha Walters.

    Get on her. So she does some backpedaling to attempt to garner sympathy. Not happening. So, like, she's like, I just you know, I'm looking for some sympathy at Tara Brown's. Like, the only people I have sympathy for is people with actual kids it's just like so so fucking insane lady.

    So, March 2017, Belle was found guilty of 5 breaches of consumer law by Consumer Affairs, Victoria. That's incredible. The federal court justice Deborah Mortimer found that Gibson's claims had been misleading and deceptive, and that quote, miss Gibson had no reasonable basis to believe she had cancer from the time she began making these claims in public to to promote the whole pantry book and the apps in mid 2013, but there was not enough evidence to prove that she was not acting out of delusion. What? So they were like, I don't know.

    She is delusional. Be able support it. They were like, so she's insane? Are they gonna if they're gonna excuse her? No.

    Oh, shit. In September 2017, Gibson was fined $410,000 for making false claims about her charitable donations. Gibson claimed she couldn't pay that, but in the years following, she lived mostly like nothing happened. She traveled to Bali in Africa, and from 2017 to 29 all this money that she made, she couldn't afford to pay that? Yeah.

    All this money that she made in other people's names. Yeah. She was like, I can't pay that. But then goes to Bali and Africa, and then in 2 years, spends $13,000 on clothing, accessories, and cosmetics. Fuck her.

    Do you have a lot of money? That's a lot of money. That's a lot. The amount of, like, not still not you're not shopping at Target. That's not Target.

    That's not even, like, $13,000 in 2 years in 2 years, which I'm like, I can't even wrap my brain around. I feel like I've not spent a $1,000 on clothes No. With accessories and cosmetics in 2 years. Look at that. Because I mean, you've got a kid.

    Like, what are you doing? And you know you spend less on yourself. I don't know. She's a fucking narcissist, so I don't know. But So January of 2020, the Sheriff's office of Victoria raided Gibson's home and seized items in attempt to recoup Gibson's unpaid fines.

    Which because of the interest was exceeding half a $1,000,000. Fuck. A video surfaced of Belle, like, the day after the raid of video surfaced of her in October of 2019, sporting a headscarf and speaking Oromo. And What? It's like a African language.

    Referring to herself as Sanbantu. And in the interview, she talks about politics in Ethiopia and referring to it as back home. Like, as she's She's she's saying Ethiopia. She's mentally sick. Yeah.

    Like, she has to And she's like, I'm so happy for the Oromo and Ethiopian community to have accepted me and adopted me here. I Because she's gonna dupe them the way that she's duped everybody else. Yeah. She said she'd been she was introduced to the community 4 years ago when she started volunteering with them, and it was a gift from the community and a gift from Allah that she Oh, my god. She had discovered this, like, amazing group of people.

    The day, you can't make this up. You literally can't make this up. And in an article entitled Uh-oh. What? Cancer fraudster Belgacin rejected by idiots.

    Let's just check it. Rejected. The president of the Australian Oromo Community Association in Victoria said, we don't know her. He said they said, uh-oh. No.

    No. No. We're not gonna fucking put our name on that. She was not a registered volunteer, and he'd seen her a few times and thought someone else brought her. Oh, shit.

    They're like, oh, she's she must have come in with soap. And then he's like, she's like, I'm so grateful. There's a quote though. So he he says, quote I wonder where that is from. Community member, and she's also not working with the community.

    She has to stop telling people she is. They don't even wanna claim her. They care for her. So she is literally please stop. Just please stop associating yourself with that.

    Uh-uh. I won't touch that with a 10 foot pole. Do not. Did not. I can't bring that over here.

    Just rejected my e p l t. When she gave herself a name. She gave herself a full on name. This interview. A lot.

    I'm gonna, have to post it. It's so unhinged. They're like, no bitch. I don't know who she came here with. She keeps like, she did not make the She keeps, like, speaking, like, inserting, like, these aroma, like, there's, like, like, little tidbits to be, like I don't know.

    It feels like when, oh my god, it it feels like when someone is, like, around someone who speaks Spanish, and they'll be like, you know, this I can't even No. I just, like, you know, like, even, like, inserting words with, like, the accent that is just so unnecessary. Yes. The n yays. The n yays.

    The n yays. I feel like Or, like, the the the Gianna, like, the I can't even talk. I'm Yeah. Confusing my mind. I just feel like she's just, Oh my god.

    It's so cringe and so unhinged, and I will post it. I feel like this is, you might have to edit this part out. But I feel like even, like, the most rural and, like, the most maybe not connected of countries and maybe, like, the not yeah. You might have to edit this shit out. Can smell her bullshit though.

    And they're like, nah. We don't even want that shit. We don't want, like, to anything to do with her. Yeah. Alert.

    Alert. Alert. Alert. Well, so she can't even be accepted. I know.

    Like So the president of this community in Australia, he was, like, to volunteer here, we require background checks. So she would not have cleared would not have cleared. A background check. And he's, like, we did not know. He's, like, I'd seen her around and I thought someone brought her.

    I didn't know who she was, but now that I know Don't come here. No. You're not even wanted here. No. Goodbye.

    Yeah. That is so fucking good. That brings me, like So much joy. Yes. So much joy.

    So in May 2021, her home was raided again. Oh. They're allowing her basically, like, basic comforts, and they're like, anything else? No. Of course.

    No. Yeah. Yeah. And currently You've got bitch, you've got back you've got yeah. You yeah.

    So, currently, she is laying low, and there is a new documentary about her, I think, on EBC. I feel like every few years, there's just a new documentary or a new something or other. Oh my god. But wait. Where's her son?

    Her poor son. I know. See, and that's why I feel like it's bad momming. So maybe not a good mom, but, like, was is doting, and who knows? Maybe that guy is still around, because he still wants to, like, do right by this kid who's now thrown in this fucking because I mean, imagine losing, like, a father figure, and then also all this shit happening.

    Yeah. He's like, if I go, he is not I don't know his reason, but But they're still together? Yeah. Apparently. As far as I know, yeah.

    No. No. He's in it for the kid. He has to be because once you realize that the person that you think Yeah. Was that person is not, then Yeah.

    What is there to stay for unless there's somebody else who's completely innocent in all of it. So maybe he's just a good dude. I don't know. I don't wanna put that out there. But Maybe he's just a trying dude.

    I don't know. I feel like it's it's probably very complicated for him, and I'm very curious to know. Because, it's very curious that he did give enough of an interview to be like, yeah. I I know that I knew it was wrong, and that the diagnosis was wrong. Like but to still be with hers.

    Mhmm. Which also I'm like, okay. If I was shady as fuck, and you sold me out, bet your ass, you wouldn't be up in this. Mhmm. Mhmm.

    Because that's weird too. That is weird. Honestly, I don't know. I feel like I just need to follow her now. Oh my god.

    Is she on no. No. She's not. I don't think she's anywhere online. Yeah.

    She's probably hiding. Yeah. As she should be. Yeah. Yeah.

    But Oh my god. Yeah. So that is the story of Belle Gibson. She is not necessarily connected to the yoga world. However, I feel like because she is an influencer and because the way that, like, a lot of, like, yoga, Instagram is is that a lot of us fall for that shit.

    Yeah. And I feel like I'm on. You're looking for and and you're ever just open. And I think that, like, in, you know, wellness as a whole, I think this is like It can show itself in different ways. Yeah.

    And I think it's a symptom of wellness culture and where it's going. Yeah. And yoga fits into that. Yeah. Even though it's not technically yoga related, I feel like it is yoga adjacent and also important to be aware of so that we don't believe all of the bullshit that people try to sell us.

    Because it's And to question everything. Question every fucking thing. Yeah. And when you're at that tells you to eat melons because they look like brains. Because they look like brains, and that's good food.

    Through the brain that start with a p. Then question. Then question that shit. Question When your math ain't mathing. Yeah.

    Question everything. Everything. What are we gonna call this one? I can't. Sonbangtu is spiritually cooked.

    They don't even want her. They they don't even want you. Ethiopia rejects Belle Gibson. Right? Wait.

    No. Wait. What was that line? That was the best one. What was Cancer fraudster rejected by Ethiopia.

    Cancer fraudster rejected by Ethiopians. Boom. Fucking sound bomb too. That was so good. I knew it had to be something so like, the first two minutes, I was like, oh, she's god.

    This is bad news bears. I feel like this was a good pal I mean, obviously, this is not very good because a lot of people were affected negatively. Yeah. But it wasn't murder. It wasn't murder.

    So I feel like we needed it. Like nobody died. Yeah. We needed we needed nobody dying. Well, okay.

    We needed no one To intentionally murder. Died. Yeah. It wasn't like shank No. Kind of murder.

    No. But a lot of people died believing those bullshit. Yeah. It's pretty disgusting. It is.

    Like super vile human shit. Yeah. She was so young. I know. She is my sister's age.

    Mhmm. And to have caused all that shit in this, like mhmm. That doesn't yeah. She's a different human. Yeah.

    And she was fully born that way. Oh, yeah. I I have no doubt. So in this new documentary, her brother gives an interview. I have not been able to get it because I don't I don't know how to work a VPN thing so that I can get it Mhmm.

    On but I'm very curious to see what her brother thinks because in the book, he's very much, like, you know, I'm trying to have a relationship with her that really, really sucks that, you know, she said the things that she did. But now I guess he's just like, fuck it. Yeah. I feel like a part of him is gonna be like, oh, I just wanna see, like, what I can make of like, what relationship I can make with her because we were never given, like, a solid chance probably. I think there's kids are the same age too.

    So I think that there was, like, some sort of, like, oh, well, maybe there's gonna be, like, some like, maybe we can, like, figure this out and work it out as family and be good in the long run, but I don't know. I, being the fierce mom that I am, would never try to mend a relationship with somebody like that. No. No. Because I have kids.

    No. I will not. That's damn. I mean, not to shit on or, you know, not to discredit, like, anyone who is on the spectrum or who is autistic, but, like, this guy, I mean, I've I assume he's older and probably has some sort of stigma about it where he's, like, feels like not good about having to constantly be, like, oh, hey. No.

    I'm not autistic. Yeah. Well, I didn't even think about that. But Yeah. That's a big part of it too where it's like, you not only lied about yourself, but you lied about me, which is something I could totally get over, but I can't get over the the vile human being that you are.

    Yeah. And I will not expose my kids to you. Like, I just would never. Mm-mm. But I understand his reasons for trying if Yeah.

    And then he was probably like, oh, no. This bitch is real fucked up. But I feel like there's a real big money grab trying going on with her family where they're, like, trying to because in the book, the mom was always like, tell them that I will give an interview for, like, this amount of A few grand or blah blah blah. She was quoted as saying, like, no money, no honey. Oh.

    Ew. I'm looking her up. Belle Gibson. Her name is even ridiculous. That's what she looks like.

    Yeah. Convicted scammer and pseudoscience advocate. She's author of whole pantry mold plot. Did you find her in her headscarf yet? No.

    But I need to I'm gonna post it. It's gonna She's gonna look so fucking ridiculous because I cannot imagine. At a She is, like, the whitest of white people. Mhmm. And that's no discredit on white people because No.

    Together we make one whole white lady. Yeah. We do. Also. But, she is the whitest of white ladies.

    She's the whitest of white ladies. And Ethiopia. Rejected by Ethiopia. Yeah. She's 32.

    The robo community knows what's up. So thank you for listening. Please, you can follow us on Instagram at spiritually effed podcast. Please like or, like, rate and review Rate and review. Review.

    I know. I hear it all the time from other people, but it does not flow out of the mouth No. As it should. No. Please rate and review us.

    You can check out our website, spiritually fucked.com, or email us at hello at spiritually fucked.com if you have any good stories or leads, or to say hi and nice things only. On nice things only. Nice things only we can handle. I'm too fragile. Yeah.

    We can handle. But other than that, thank you so much for listening. That's why I forgot stupid.


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Resources

Donelly, Beau and Nick Toscano. The Woman Who Fooled The World: Belle Gibson’s Cancer Con. Scribble, 2018

Amazon

Audible

Ackerman, Tessa. “Cancer Fraudster Belle Gibson Rejected by Ethiopians.” The Weekend Australian. 24 January 2020

Donelly, Beau and Nick Toscano. “Friends and doctors raise doubts over 'Healing Belle' cancer claims.” The Age, 10 March 2015

Donelly, Beau and Nick Toscano. “Backlash over app developer Belle Gibson's missing charity money.” The Age, 9 March 2015

Weaver, Claire. “Belle Gibson: The Girl Who Conned Us All.” Now To Love, 25 July 2015



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