Netflix viewers are set to be shocked as a new drama will tell the true story of an influencer who faked having terminal cancer in order to gain followers.
Kaitlyn Dever will star as Belle Gibson, a real life fitness guru who lied about the diagnosis before she was found out.
The series releases tomorrow (6 February) on Netflix, with Dever joined in the cast by Alycia Debnam-Carey, Aisha Dee, and Ashley Zukerman.
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Gibson’s story is one that needs a huge tag at the start of the series clarifying it is based on genuine true facts - because otherwise you’d struggle to believe it.
The show is called Apple Cider Vinegar, and focuses on how Gibson claimed she had ‘cured’ her brain cancer through a combination of wellness and healthy living.
The entire thing was a sham, however, with her raising tens of thousands of dollars for charities she did not donate to.
Though not everything in the show is 100 per cent true, it is based on the bonkers story and is inspired by the 2017 book, The Woman Who Fooled the World, by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano.
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The Netflix series is set in the early days of Instagram, and follows Dever as Gibson alongside Alycia Debnam-Carey as Milla Blake, who is not a real influencer but likely a composition of several contemporaries of Gibson’s.
She looks to promote healthy eating as a way of combatting cancer.
Potential spoilers lie ahead for the true story behind Apple Cider Vinegar.
What is Belle Gibson's story?
Gibson was discovered in real life because of an app she created called The Whole Pantry, which contained 80 recipes to ‘heal the body’.
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She claimed she had diagnosed with a brain tumour, as well as 'cancer in my blood, spleen, brain, uterus, and liver', which she also claimed she had in a 2014 Instagram post, according to the BBC.
Gibson made over £200,000 from sales of her cookbook and app and promised a cut of the profits to charities, something Donelly and Toscano later discovered she did not follow through on.
This caused internet sleuths to dig into the story and, as cracks began to form, she admitted she had made the whole thing up, telling Women's Weekly in 2015 (via The Guardian): "None of it’s true."
She was then fined $41,000 in Australian courts for almost the full sum she earned from The Whole Pantry as a result of her false claims, The Guardian reported.
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In 2015, Gibson also appeared on 60 Minutes Australia, where she again admitted lying about her diagnosis's, but somehow also stated she had been ‘duped’ by quack doctors, the BBC reports.
Samantha Strauss, the creator of the show, said of making Apple Cider Vinegar off the back of this insane story: “It’s really interesting to look at how media uses food as a weapon against us and how much we crave the nourishment, but how much of a privilege and how expensive it is to try to be well.”
Apple Cider Vinegar releases on Netflix, 6 February.
Michael Slavin