This woman's unbelievable life story was turned into a movie. Then she was accused of making it up.

What's that in the air? The smell of a potential scam? That's right, folks. A juicy scandal is unfolding in the world of publishing and it's getting real messy.

The book in question is The Salt Path, a best-selling memoir by Raynor Winn, which has sold two million copies around the world and produced two successful sequels.

The 'true' story recounts how Raynor and her husband, Moth, became homeless in middle age and decided to walk the entire 630-mile South West Coast Path in England from Somerset to Dorset.

Their journey began just days after Moth was diagnosed with a terminal illness, corticobasal degeneration (CBD), and the couple lost their home and livelihood due to a failed investment.

The book was released back in 2018, which begs the question: why are we talking about it now?

The movie adaptation of The Salt Path started screening back in May. Based on Winn's memoir, the film stars Sex Education lead Gillian Anderson as Raynor Winn and The White Lotus' messiest gossip Jason Isaacs as Moth Winn.

Watch the trailer. Post continues after video.

Winn is also credited as a co-producer on the film.

This brings us to this month, and an exposé in The Observer has made some huge claims about the 'real' events depicted in the memoir.

"Penniless and homeless, the Winns found fame and fortune with the story of their 630-mile walk to salvation," the investigation's excerpt reads.

"We can reveal that the truth behind it is very different."

Intriguing, right?

An investigation into Raynor's memoir The Salt Path has alleged there are several major discrepancies and fabrications made in her book that don't align with the version of events that others witnessed.

In response, Winn described the article's claims as "grotesquely unfair" and "highly misleading" and said she was seeking legal advice, adding that the memoir is "the true story of our journey".

The most significant revelation in the story surrounds the claims that Winn and her husband, Moth, lost their home after a failed investment with a friend.

The Observer alleges instead that Winn, whose real name is Sally Walker, embezzled thousands of dollars from her employer, for which she was caught, but avoided prosecution by settling the debt. Their house was repossessed after they were unable to repay this loan — not due to a failed business investment as described in the book.

Raynor Winn and her husband Moth Winn at a screening of The Salt Path. Image: Getty.

Ros Hemmings is the widow of Martin Hemmings, the man who Winn allegedly embezzled money from prior to the events described in The Salt Path. She spoke to The Observer to share her version of events, which was verified by interviews with eight people with 'direct knowledge of what happened'.

"Her claims that it was all just a business deal that went wrong really upset me," Hemmings said. "When really she had embezzled the money from my husband. It made me feel sick."

In the early '00s, Hemmings said Winn was employed part-time as a bookkeeper at her husband's family business — an estate agency and property surveying firm located in Pwllheli in North Wales.

During this period, Winn went by her legal name, Sally Walker, while her husband, Moth, was known as Tim Walker.

Martin began noticing financial discrepancies. He discovered in 2008 that Winn had failed to deposit a substantial cash amount when he checked the company's bank balance.

"We brought all the books home and started working backwards through them," Hemmings said. "There was around £9,000 (approx $18,000 AUD) missing over the previous few months."

Following this discovery, Hemmings recalled Winn arriving at their home days later, desperate to make amends. Hemmings said they accepted a repayment and attempted to move forward.

However, this was just the beginning. "We kept looking back [through the accounts]," Hemmings recalled. "In the end, I think it was around £64,000 ($133,00 AUD) she'd nicked over the previous few years."

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A post shared by Raynor Winn (@raynor.winn)

A local officer who handled the case verified that Martin reported the theft. The Hemmings' solicitor, Michael Strain, confirmed that Walker was arrested and interviewed by police. Ros said Walker was released for the evening with instructions to return to the station the following day.

"But the next morning, she never showed up. She had vanished," Hemmings claimed.

The Observer reported that Winn avoided criminal charges by signing a non-disclosure agreement and repaying the money.

There are also questions surrounding claims that the couple were homeless for a time. The investigation found that the Walkers purchased a house in France in 2007, a detail omitted from the memoir, which instead depicted them as having nowhere to go after losing their home.

Locals reported the French house was uninhabitable, but that the couple would often live in a caravan on the property.

The investigation went on to question Moth's diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration (CBD), a rare terminal illness. The Observer consulted medical experts who questioned the likelihood of Moth's long survival (over 12 years) post-diagnosis.

A neurologist and professor of clinical neurosciences at Oxford University, Prof Michele Hu, said that Moth's presentation of CBD did not align with anything she'd seen in her practice.

"I would be very sceptical that it is corticobasal. I've never looked after anyone that's lived that long," she said.

Winn has since posted clinic letters on Instagram addressed to Timothy to verify her story. "To combat these vile and heinous accusations, with Moth's permission, and on the advice of his neurologist, I am releasing excerpts from three clinic letters, showing he is treated for CBD/S and has been for many years," she told her 81k followers.

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A post shared by Raynor Winn (@raynor.winn)

She wrote: "The last few days have been some of the hardest of my life. Heartbreaking accusations that Moth has made up his illness have been made, leaving us devastated."

On her website, she said that the article was "grotesquely unfair, highly misleading and seeks to systematically pick apart my life," she said.

"The Salt Path is about what happened to Moth and me, after we lost our home and found ourselves homeless on the headlands of the south-west.

"It's not about every event or moment in our lives, but rather about a capsule of time when our lives moved from a place of complete despair to a place of hope.

"The journey held within those pages is one of salt and weather, of pain and possibility. And I can't allow any more doubt to be cast on the validity of those memories, or the joy they have given so many."

Penguin, the publisher of The Salt Path, has responded to the controversy by stating that it conducted "all necessary due diligence" before publishing the memoir.

Penguin has also clarified that the recent allegations made in The Observer are a matter for the author, Raynor Winn, rather than the publisher.

At the time the controversy broke, Penguin's website continued to describe The Salt Path as "unflinchingly honest" and "true".

Meanwhile, Hemmings has said that her daughter writes messages in Winn's famed books to share her family's side.

"When she found any of the books in charity shops, she would write a little homily in the front about what Sally's really like."

Feature image: Getty/Transmission Films.