Instagram's Worst Con Artist on ITV: Who was Belle Gibson and what did she do?
25.04.2024 - 20:07
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
The toxic world of social media influencers is blown wide open tonight (Thursday, April 25) on ITV's Instagram's Worst Con Artist. The two-part documentary focuses on Belle Gibson, a woman who shot to fame on the Meta-owned network.
At 21, she found fame as a single mother with a tragic terminal cancer diagnoses. Gibson subsequently claimed to have cured her illness through wellness and healthy eating.
But it was all a lie. Gibson was exposed by a journalist and a friend who grew suspicious of her.
READ MORE: Christine McGuinness' three-word message about love life after celebrity boyfriend reports
Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and Breaking News group by clicking this link
The Australian social media celebrity was born in 1991 in Tasmania. She claims she left her family home at 12 to live with a classmate.
She had a child at 18, and launched The Whole Pantry mobile app in August 2013, at the age of 21. The Whole Pantry was an app and then a cookbook based on Gibson's own wellness principles.
By early 2015, it was estimated that in excess of AUD 1 million (£522,000) had been made in sales of The Whole Pantry app and book.
Gibson stated that she had a reaction to a cervical cancer vaccine and had subsequently been diagnosed with malignant brain, blood, spleen, uterine, liver, and kidney cancers.
When the book was launched in November 2014, Gibson claimed in its preface that she had been "stable for two years now with no growth of the cancer". She said that she had eschewed conventional medical treatment and healed her body through diet and wellness measures.
Gibson's story inspired cancer sufferers, some of whom she claimed followed her in rejecting medicine, although that's unconfirmed. She became a major media