An Apple Cider Vinegar star has opened up about the emotional toll the Belle Gibson's cancer scam has had on so many victims.
In 2013, wellness guru Belle set up a page claiming she was battling cancer but kept the details of her condition private. She quickly gained a huge following on social media, promoting her wholefoods approach to curing her supposed inoperable brain cancer while raising significant amounts of money for charity.
However, two years later, things started to unravel when two journalists began to investigate her empire. They discovered that no money had gone to charity and that her cancer claims were dubious.
Belle's story is garnering attention again following the release of a new six-part Netflix series on the scandal. Now, one of the stars of the show has revealed the profound impact the Belle scam had on them after speaking to victims.
Speaking to Elle, Australian actress Alycia Debnam-Carey, who appears in the show, admitted: “Belle’s story was a huge part of the zeitgeist. She was really one of the first social media influencer, wellness creator types at a time that was all about the girl boss. When I was prepping for the role, there were so many friends of mine who had connections to this story.
"I was telling a friend about it and she was like, ‘Oh my god, I have her cookbook!’ We would have been about 16 when this was all happening, so at a really impressionable age. It just showed to me how far-reaching Belle’s tentacles were.”
In Apple Cider Vinegar, Alycia Debnam-Carey plays Milla Blake, a fictional character inspired by the real-life story of Jessica Ainscough, an Australian wellness blogger known as 'The Wellness Warrior'. While Milla is not directly based on Ainscough, her character shares many similarities.
Gibson's lies were uncovered by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, who had been working at The Age, a Melbourne newspaper at the time. Their 2017 book The Woman Who Fooled the World inspired the series.
When reflecting on the show, creator Samantha Strauss spoke about the real-life consequences portrayed, including the character Lucy, who was heavily influenced by the Belle scam she chose to reject traditional medication.
Sharing her thoughts on what made the story stand out, Samantha said: “The source material offered up terrific bones for a really interesting look at the rise and fall of a con woman,” Strauss told Tudum. “But Apple Cider Vinegar is about more than that. This story just couldn’t exist without showing someone like Lucy — she is the real-world consequences.”
Meanwhile, Debnam-Carey heaped praise on Strauss for her role in the series. She told Elle: “Samantha Strauss is an expert at being able to give a story and characters a lot of nuance, especially complicated and difficult characters who are making these decisions and choices that we disagree with.”
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