Belle Gibson, Blogger Who Lied About Having Cancer, Just Keeps Lying

Fallen wellness guru Belle Gibson appeared on the Australian version of 60 Minutes, where she was grilled by reporter Tara Brown who asked a series of questions relating to Gibson’s dire health history. Gibson became one of the Internet’s most famous healthy living bloggers after claiming that a mindful diet and holistic medicine cured her from malignant brain cancer. In April, she admitted that she was never ill, but in the recently aired interview, she claims ignorance due to a misdiagnosis by a “quack” doctor.

“I’ve not been intentionally untruthful. I’ve been completely open when speaking about what was my reality and what is my reality now,” she said to Brown. According to The Guardian, Gibson also told Brown that she believed she had cancer since 2009, when she was wrongly diagnosed by an alternative doctor named “Mark Johns.” 60 Minutes was not able to find any record of Johns’s existence. Insert side-eye here.

Gibson launched an app called The Whole Pantry in 2013 and released a companion cookbook during the following year. In the book, Gibson says she pulled herself out of chemo and healed herself with “alternative therapies,” empowering herself to save her own life through “nutrition, patience, determination and love.” Throughout the program, Brown is not putting up with her shit. “You didn’t write it as you just told it to me. You rewrote history,” Brown says to Gibson when pointing out inconsistencies between the book and Gibson’s recollection of her story.

Brown goes down the list of ailments Gibson had claimed to possess before she found success with The Whole Pantry: three heart operations, two cardiac arrests, as well as “dying twice” on the operating table and experiencing a stroke. When Gibson was 17, she posted details of her afflictions on a skateboarding forum where she was a regular contributor. When Brown calls her out on these, Gibson chalks it up to being “melodramatic” during her teen years. “Do you believe you have a mental illness?” asks Brown. “It’s been suggested that you have Munchausen syndrome or a factitious disorder. Do you believe that?” Gibson denies the theory.

Gibson also had trouble answering a simple question about her age. Brown brings up birth records that show Gibson as 23. “I’ve always been raised as being currently a 26-year-old,” Gibson says. “This is a really, really simple question. How old are you?” presses Brown. Gibson replies, “That’s probably a question we’ll have to keep digging for.” Gibson also mentions that she has had two birth certificates and changed her name four times. “Would you accept that you’re a pathological liar?” asks Brown. “No,” Gibson answers.

Gibson also failed to deliver funds raised by her app and book that she had promised to various charities.