The Wellness Guru Who Conned Apple & Faked Her Entire Life | Belle Gibson Documentary

hi i'm steve jobs you'll be surprised by some of the stuff you find on youtube more powerful more intelligent technology in your pocket in 2014 a young woman named belle gibson became apple's sweetheart she was touted by the silicon valley giant as the picture of wellness she had a thriving app and hundreds of thousands of followers online why because she beat cancer holistically or so she said but to know belle is to really not know her at all you see this is belle this is belle and this is belle she built a million dollar business off her cinderella story and she was one of the first successful influencers to do it on social media but to draw people in it's not enough to just post pretty selfies delicious food photos or have a visually pleasing instagram aesthetic after all wellness is a big business from 2013 to 2015 the global wellness sector grew from 3.36 trillion dollars to 3.72 trillion today the wellness industry is worth 4.2 trillion dollars and represents 5.1 of global economic output it includes personal care and beauty healthy eating and weight loss spiritual wellness and more so if you want to join the wellness industry and make a buck like bell how are you going to do it well you need to stand out and to stand out you need to be able to draw people in with a compelling story that tugs on people's heartstrings a story that says hey i know you're going through a hard time i am too and we can be on this journey together but if you're too much like the people you're speaking to you won't stand out you need to be a guru and set yourself above the rest how do you do that by claiming to have a cure for the people who are suffering just like you were [Music] then you sell your magical cure to the masses and don't forget to use your call to action at the end of every post now you're looked at as not only heroic but a healer this is exactly what belle gibson did to cancer survivors silicon valley and penguin random house publishing group all before being caught by australian authorities and there's still so much more she's done since her scandal broke several years ago all that and more is covered in this documentary so sit back and relax because this is the story of belle gibson the wellness guru whose fairy tale was nothing more than a tale of deception [Music] [Music] bell had one brother and was raised by a single mother with multiple sclerosis belle's mother confirmed belle had a heart condition and it seemed belle's childhood was chaotic belle and her brother had a stepfather who was in and out of their lives and the family moved several times and at the age of 12 belle moved out of the family home and in with a classmate after that belle's mother and brother reported she moved in with a friend she made while in primary school a man in his 60s belle moved in with him her freshman year of high school and by her sophomore year bell had dropped out of high school completely it was during this time bell became active in an online skateboarding forum but belle didn't talk much about a shared love of skateboarding instead she often told her friends of her health struggles claiming that she had had surgery and went into cardiac arrest died twice on the operating table and then was brought back to life bell worked as a trainee for a catering supply company in perth in 2008 and by 2010 bell moved to melbourne and gave birth to a baby boy at the age of 18. soon after bell became knowledgeable with computers programming and studied web development by 2013 bell created an instagram account titled healing bell and it was there while posting pretty food pictures and selfies bell told a story of how in 2010 she had been diagnosed with inoperable malignant brain cancer and given just six weeks to four months to live bell claimed her diagnosis came after she had already survived a terrible childhood where she took care of her mother from the age of five and had a brother with autism belle told her new followers she had no toys as a child and was expected to run the house bell claimed that besides her son she was all alone in the world as her mother wasn't able to handle hearing about her cancer diagnosis and the two had become estranged belle's instagram account grew rapidly and she told her followers that after being diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer she did traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy but she claimed neither worked and the side effects were severe so she began exploring alternative ways to treat her cancer which took her down a path of cutting out all meat dairy gluten preservatives of any kind gmos and sugar from her diet she claimed vitamin and ayurvedic treatments along with oxygen therapy were part of her treatment and because of these alternative treatments belle claimed she was cancer-free which was what prompted her to make her instagram account belle wanted to offer help and advice and share with the world how she had healed herself belle's success happened quickly and she soon built a following of 179 000 followers unlike today where influencers are a dime a dozen and standing out on social media can be difficult belle was seen as a trendsetter and an icon in the health and wellness space at the time and it was in 2013 that bell got a man named alex who she met through mutual friends in melbourne to become her co-developer and together they created the whole pantry which was marketed as the world's first lifestyle app and cost 3.79 the whole pantry app claimed to offer empowering information lifestyle guides and simple yet beautiful nourishing recipes in its first month it was downloaded around two hundred thousand times bringing in over seven hundred fifty thousand dollars due to its popularity the whole pantry app became apple's best food and drink app of 2013. this caught apple's attention and seeing how marketable belle and her inspirational story were as well as the success of the whole pantry app apple honed in on bell and invited her to work on a super secret project something that would be released within the next year but hadn't yet been named some people suspected it would be a device called the iwatch we know it today as the apple watch apple told belle they wanted to fly her out to their headquarters in california to work on further development of their app and then they told her the big news belle's whole pantry app would be one of the only apps to come pre-programmed on the apple watch apple also told bell they wanted her to be there when they debuted the apple watch for the first time in front of the world where belle's app would be displayed on a screen in front of everyone in attendance bell said yes to the planned event that would be held in summer of 2014 and continued sharing recipes selfies talking about health and even being a shoulder to cry on for other men and women who were battling cancer or had loved ones doing the same apple has been known since its inception in 1976 for taking an interest in healthcare and providing accessibility to computing for all including people with visual and hearing impairments as well as other disabilities the whole pantry app claimed to persuade people to live better healthier lives by improving their diet taking care of their bodies and offering advice on yoga and holistic medicine at the time some were surprised by apple's interest in the health app but others weren't as apple's co-founder steve jobs delayed conventional treatment for nine months after he was sadly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer as jobs preferred to use alternative remedies he passed away in 2011 and according to steve jobs biographer walter isaacson the apple founder quote eventually came to regret the decision he had made years earlier to reject potentially life-saving surgery in favor of alternative treatments like acupuncture dietary supplements and juices though he ultimately embraced the surgery and sought out cutting-edge experimental methods they were not enough to save him end quote maybe apple executives saw the outcome in bell they wished they had seen in steve jobs whatever it was apple executives took a liking to bell with senior staff at apple referring to bell in their emails as darling one and lovely and sometimes even signing off their emails with xoxo three senior staff members from apple were also mentioned in the thank you section of belle's book which was offered to her through penguin random house and set to come out the same year as the apple watch in september of 2014 bell began working with apple to make the whole pantry's app a pre-installed default inclusion in the apple watch for its 2015 launch bell was living large but it wasn't enough after all she was magically cured had a successful business more money than she'd ever had and was being courted by the biggest tech company in the world and had gained over 300 000 followers by 2014 but she wanted more more attention more sympathy and so in 2014 a few months before apple's event bell staged a 40-minute seizure at her four-year-old son's birthday party [Music] as the birthday guests were getting ready to leave belle suddenly slumped against a wall and slid down it to cushion her fall everyone turned their attention to belle who is now on the floor bell made such a scene that even the adults were crying as one frantic guest pulled out her phone to call the emergency services bell suddenly became coherent enough to say she didn't want to go to the hospital and that it would pass once everyone was made aware not to call an ambulance or take her to a doctor belle went back into her pretend season lasting a total of 40 minutes the terrifying episode was witnessed not just by the adults but by belle's son and all the children at the birthday party one of belle's former friends who had been at the party told the author of the book the woman who fooled the world that quote it looked real i believed it was real and i was mortified i cried driving all the way home i actually don't know how i got home that night belle posted on facebook about the experience calling it a painful collapse and said quote i have seizures often as a result of my brain cancer but nothing ever this long or intense extremely grateful for my friends and family who were there to support me through this and my team who are looking for new answers but a one-and-done wasn't enough for belle and two weeks after her son's birthday party she announced to the world that her cancer had spread belle's online post read quote with frustration and ache in my heart it hurts me to find space tonight to let you all know with love and strength that i have been diagnosed with a third and fourth cancer one is secondary and the other is primary i have cancer in my blood spleen brain uterus and liver i am hurting but belle wasn't hurting and she wasn't done scheming [Music] because five years ago i was diagnosed with terminal cancer and we launched the whole pantry a year ago and that was that evolution came through my community they kept reaching out to me saying you know we're also feeling in a space of um an uninspired space or a space without direction and how are we going to you know live the whole life without resources or without something pulling that all together so that was my responsibility you know it took seven months worth of development and i put everything that i knew along my journey with cancer nutrition and wellness and put it on the most accessible device possible the iphone and it's just onwards and upwards from there with the apple watch it's even more accessible and it's an even more personal experience and more personal journey to living the whole life and adopting the support and the resources that we put there for you my developer and i had come over here four weeks ago now we've been working every day on our apple watch app and it's been hard it's been hard it's been hard because the jet lag has been hard being a startup and dropped in amongst the twitters and the bmws of the world but we're ecstatic with what we've come out with and just the emotion that's in the room at the moment is very powerful we didn't really know how it was going to be received but of course apple have redefined the behavior and user experience around wearables so what we've done is we've with our companion app is we've added a meal planning section with the meal planning section you choose the recipes you want to make for dinner party or for the week ahead and that pushes all over to the apple watch with the apple watch you can have a hands-free shopping experience in the grocery store and there's there's no awkwardness around that now with the constantly pulling your phone out putting it back away dropping it on the floor um it makes a lot of sense we've been working here in total secrecy for the last three four weeks and it's been a whirlwind and that's also you know we're really emotional and proud about it and i have a feeling now that australia is waking up that they're spotting it the text messages and the the instagram comments and the tweets are coming in saying did we just spot your icon on the new apple watch and you did and it's exciting to the outside world belle looked like a fighter and she had the support of her friends and adoring followers and she continued to gain recognition for the work she was doing all along she was promoting how the whole pantry was donating a portion of every app purchased to charity saying she was helping raise funds for maternal health care in developing nations funding for schools in africa and cancer research bell even held events specifically to fundraise for some of these charities and by 2014 she told the world she had donated 300 000 to charity but behind the scenes bell donated little more than 3 percent of that 300 000 to charity instead she bought designer outfits got her hair and nails done held photo shoots for her instagram feed and traveled the world a former employee of bell's reported quote bell would post on social media that she's been at a doctor's appointment all day but really she was just going to the dentist she got her veneers done but she would make it sound like it was for a cancer-related illness during the same time belle was having her rise to fame another wellness blogger was making waves in the health community her name was jessica and belle said jessica was one of her biggest inspirations jessica attracted thousands of followers on social media as she shunned conventional medical treatment for a rare cancer she was diagnosed with and attempted to cure through gerson therapy gerson therapy is an unproven treatment which involves daily coffee enemas large loads of dietary supplements and following a strict organic vegetarian diet with gerson therapy one is supposed to drink 20 pounds or 9 kilos of crushed fruit and vegetables this amounts to one glass of juice hourly 13 times a day this alternative dietary therapy was created by the german physician max gerson in 1928 dr max believed the treatment cleanses the body boosts the immune system and rids it of unnecessary toxins but cancer institutes around the world have rejected gerson therapy and deemed it as ineffective and dangerous jessica also an australian like belle was diagnosed with cancer in 2008 when she was only 22 years old jessica was diagnosed with a rare soft tissue cancer known as epithelioid sarcoma which affects young adults and most often first develops in the hand or arm jessica wrote in a blog that her doctors told her epithelioid sarcoma doesn't respond to chemotherapy or radiation and that jessica's only chance of prolonging her survival would be to have her arm amputated at the shoulder jessica decided against this and tried chemotherapy anyway when that didn't work doctors again suggested amputation jessica refused her doctor's advice and instead turned to gerson therapy jessica then regularly blogged about her health and yoga routine held retreats for her followers and also got a book deal while bell's brand was the whole pantry jessica's brand was the wellness warrior in a 2013 interview jessica stated quote i am a firm believer that our bodies are not designed to consume chemicals so i respect my body by feeding it what it wants and needs lots and lots of organic plants but by age 30 jessica's cancer had spread she attempted six weeks of radiation but sadly it was too late and jessica passed away at the age of 30. and then bell crashed jessica's funeral belle and jessica met only once and jessica's friends would later report that after their meeting jessica said something was off about belle gibson this didn't come out of course until belle made a scene at jessica's wake and funeral in 2015 which prompted journalists to speak with jessica's friends and family it was revealed that belle turned up to jessica's private wake where she cried hysterically during the week she reportedly asked jessica's fiance for a private chat and then sobbed on his shoulder while telling him her heart was breaking and that she was petrified of dying the way his partner had bell then proceeded to cry the loudest at jessica's funeral one funeral attendee reported quote it was like she was making a point of being seen and heard like she was trying to prove that she was more devastated than everybody else who was there it was estimated that belle's book and app had made in excess of 1 million dollars in sales by early 2015 and it looked like bell had plans to expand the brand with the whole life domain being registered and an advert placed at the end of 2014 looking for an i.t specialist december also saw bell being given an article in el australia titled the most inspiring woman you've met this year belle was still in the clear with her apple collaboration on the horizon and she continued to build a bigger following across her various social media platforms until in march of 2015 when her fairy tale built on lies would come crashing down [Music] bell had previously made claims about 300 000 of her profits from the whole pantry book and app sales being donated to charity this claim caught the eye of consumer affairs victoria and they began investigating in march of 2015 an australian publication exposed that bell's donation claims were false the journalists who broke the story gave bell a heads up about the soon to be published article and asked bell to respond to their email so she could set the record straight but belle ignored them and instead made a few hasty donations to the charities she claimed she had already helped these journalists found this out when they got in touch with the charity organizations themselves in total belle gibson donated only ten thousand dollars of the three hundred thousand dollar charity money bells charity fraud opened the floodgates for journalists to start looking into all of bell's claims and for the first time people started to really look at belle's story and suddenly things weren't adding up on march 11th of 2015 an australian publication posted an article titled friends raised doubts over aussie entrepreneur belle gibson's cancer claims an alleged friend of belle said quote she admitted her diagnosis was questionable i asked her when she got her diagnosis she said she didn't know i asked her who gave her the diagnosis she said dr phil i asked if dr phil had a last name she said she didn't know because he disappeared i asked her where she saw dr phil and she said he came and picked her up from her house belle gibson had betrayed the public's trust and she knew it as it was around this time that multiple posts regarding bell's health and cancer scares had been deleted from the whole pantry's social media accounts as well as bell's personal accounts also deleted were posts from belle's instagram that referenced her charitable donations but this all raised one very important question how had she been able to keep this going for so long how had no one ever asked her for actual proof of her claims penguin random house apple and australia's media were now facing criticism from people rightfully asking how did none of you do your due diligence in substantiating bell's claims responding to a march 2015 media inquiry apple said it wasn't going to remove the whole pantry app from its store as it's concernedly only with the functionality of the app but as outrage continued to grow apple silently removed bell's app from being included in the apple watch launch and eventually quietly deleted the entire app from the apple store at the time of this recording apple has never made a public statement regarding bell gibson and the promotion and removal of the whole pantry bell's book publisher initially claimed to not have confirmed bell's cancer claims as the book was focused primarily on recipes but then a video was leaked that showed penguin random house publishing executives coaching belle with media training before the release of the book media training where they specifically told belle that she needed to get her story straight about her medical treatments as pressure mounted penguin removed the whole pantry from sale the reason given was a lack of response from bell regarding their inquiries about the latest media accusation penguin ended up paying a 30 000 fine to the victoria consumer law fund for failing to validate the content in the book bell attempted to make amends she worked with a pr company and held an interview with the australian women's weekly but it would be a damning article that confirmed what many already speculated the interviewer asked belle outright if she has or ever has had cancer bell replied quote no none of it's true without giving an apology belle went on to talk about her difficult childhood reiterating that at age five she became her mother and brother's caretaker and housekeeper but belle's mother natalie happened to read this interview and she wasn't pleased natalie told the press quote she's got to look inside her own soul the only way she is going to get forgiveness is to stop playing the victim card and spend the next few years doing nothing but charity work for cancer victims in response to belle's claims about her childhood natalie said quote what a lot of rubbish belle never cared for me her brother is not autistic and she has barely done a minute's housework in her life i've practically worked myself into an early grave to give that girl everything she wanted in life every time she moved house i paid for it whenever she needed something for her son ollie i paid for it if she wanted a new computer i paid for it phone bills clothes beauty treatments you name it and this is how she repays me she's just a girl who always had ideas above her station she was never happy with what she had and embarrassed by her family her taste just became more and more expensive and she was living beyond her means and she was addicted to her computer she used to fall asleep with it always on facebook always online but that world is not real it's not healthy natalie did confirm that she had multiple sclerosis and when interviewed belle's estranged brother said he had no idea why bell claimed he had autism he didn't belle's interview in women's weekly did not go over well with many people one comment on social media about the article from a man named anthony read quote my beautiful wife died a couple years ago from colon cancer initially the specialist advised she should survive the cancer if she immediately underwent a series of chemotherapy and radiotherapy instead of listening to her doctors she allowed herself to be conned by a series of alternative practitioners four years later she was dead despite having paid these charlatans over 250 thousand dollars i tried my utmost to make her see sense but it was like she was in a trance these people had convinced her that cancer was a myth created by the pharmaceutical companies to sell cancer drugs all she had to do to get better was to read their books and or buy their potions my beautiful wife died from a highly survivable cancer aged just 49. her four-year-old son is unable to grow up with his mummy all because of con merchants such as this if guilty i hope this woman gets the punishment and humiliation she deserves and stripped of any profit she has made on the back of the suffering of others a court of law found bell's claims to be misleading and deceptive bell gibson was handed a 410 000 fine in september of 2017 for the false claims she had made about her charitable donations but bell claimed she couldn't afford to pay the fine she stated that she was 170 thousand dollars in debt and only had five thousand dollars to her name in april of 2019 with the fines still unpaid authorities were looking at charging her with contempt of court by september of that year bell still hadn't paid her fine and was pleading poverty but something wasn't adding up a financial analysis done by the courts found that from 2017 to 2019 bell spent 91 000 and took two vacations one to africa and one to bali the analysis showed thirteen thousand dollars and that period was splurged on clothes makeup and accessories when quizzed by the court about how she got this money and who was depositing different amounts in her account belle said she didn't know when the courts basically said you seriously don't know who's putting thousands of dollars in your account bell replied quote i'd have to speculate and i'm not willing to do that end quote in january of 2020 the sheriff's office of victoria raided bell's home and seized items to recoup the unpaid fine that was now sitting at over half a million dollars bell's home was rated again in 2021 with the same objective the fight to make cancer con woman belle gibson pay her half million dollar fine for her deception has taken a new turn neighbors say miss gibson was left in tears today when authorities raided her home officers from the sheriff's department descended on belle gibson's rental home in a secret early morning raid it's the second time in 15 months a seizure and sale warrant has been carried out on the northcote property the infamous wellness blogger faked having brain cancer and duped thousands into believing she'd cured it with natural remedies in 2017 gibson was found guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct and find four hundred and ten thousand dollars add ongoing court costs and interest and authorities are now chasing the con woman for more than five hundred thousand dollars items seized from today's raid will be sold to recoup the money following the mother of one's claims she's broke and unable to pay it's not known if anything valuable was taken from the property this morning but consumer affairs has vowed to continue to pursue gibson for payment until the substantial debt is paid the latest chapter in an intriguing tale of fraud and deceit sonia marinelli 7 news the day after bell's home was first rated a video from fall of 2019 began circulating belle was at it again as shown in this video belle can be seen wearing a headscarf and attempting to speak with a different accent in this interview she discussed ethiopia's political situation says her name is subbantu and references ethiopia as quote back home today we met in melbourne australia our diaspora community oromo community of australia met to discuss the current situation of ethiopia specifically auromia but focusing on jawa muhammad and abi ahmed and the current political situation our communities specifically the jasa of melbourne discussed the current situation uh back home we covered the history of abbey's position in ethiopia and his approach and response in the last 24 hours and we came forward with a solution after that discussion which concluded in community events to raise money for arumiya for the kiro for our communities and specifically for the security of jawa mohammed and our oromo leaders at this time we also discussed looking forward to the future and doing a forsha a community grouping to raise large amounts of money for the ongoing support of oromiya and muhammad bell went on to say she had been adopted by the ethiopian community while volunteering in melbourne but this was quickly shot down by the president of the australian oromo community association who said that bell wasn't a registered volunteer and quote is not a community member and she's also not working with the community end quote he elaborated further by saying he had only seen bell two or three times at events and expressed that he wants her to stop claiming to be part of the community at the time of this recording bell remains a free woman it's unknown how much if any of her fine has been paid to the australian courts the saddest part of all however is the possibility that someone somewhere refused to follow their doctor's orders for cancer treatment and some may have even paid the ultimate price for that decision because of one woman's thirst for fame and success and her willingness to do anything to get it this has been the story of belle gibson the con woman who took advantage of some of the most vulnerable among us [Music] if you are a fan of learning about scams cults and cautionary tales be sure to like subscribe and hit that bell icon so you never miss an upload thank you for watching my name is josie and i hope you come back for the next video [Music] you

Channel: NOT THE GOOD GIRL

Views: 589,787

Keywords: wellness, health, guru, belle gibson, 60 minutes australia, apple, penguin random house publishing, conman, con woman, con, cancer, jessica ainscough, the whole pantry, the wellness warrior, tony robbins, rachel hollis, iphone, apple watch, ipad, apple store, steve jobs, tim cook, silicon valley

Id: Xby65jBhBsM

Length: 34min 38sec (2078 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 08 2022