Belle’s wild ride keeps getting weirder…
Belle Gibson, author of bestselling book The Whole Pantry and creator of the health and wellness app of the same name, was exposed earlier this year as having falsely portrayed herself as suffering from cancer.
Claiming she had miraculously survived her terminal brain cancer by following the diet advocated in her book and app The Whole Pantry, Gibson was forced to reveal the truth about her alleged ‘misdiagnosis‘ following an investigation into her failure to donate $300,000 in profits from her app to charity as promised.
Her health food empire quickly unravelled, with her cookbook pulled from shelves and The Whole Pantry app discreetly removed from the Apple App store, despite its proposed inclusion as one of only a handful of apps inbuilt into the Apple Watch.
Last night, Belle Gibson was interviewed by 60 Minutes’ Tara Brown.
Even for viewers who had been following the story for some time, the interview was stunning and plumbed the depths of Gibson’s deception.
Here’s our pick for the most revealing moments:
1.When Belle commits to telling the truth.
Tara Brown starts the interview by saying: “Every time she speaks, there’s every chance she’s lying”, so she asks Belle whether she’s prepared to sign a stat dec.
Belle says she is. “There’s nothing left to lose. If that requires a stat dec, I’m comfortable with that”.
She tells Tara, “I’ve been really transparent.”
And then: “I didn’t trade in my story or in other people lives.”
Later in the episode she explains why she decided to do the interview: “Tara, I have lost everything. I’m not here to regain it. When you hit rock bottom there is only an opportunity to be honest and heal and apologise. I’m here to do that.”