Nutrition and wellness advocate Belle Gibson became successful in the publishing world after she sold many copies of her book and smartphone app but everything took a turn after she admitted in Australian Women's Weekly that she never had brain cancer.
Gibson, 23, who claimed she recovered from a terminal type of brain cancer through healthy eating, made many of her followers shocked. Before rising to fame, she told everyone that by eating whole foods, cancer can be healed and so, her experience as a cancer survivor spread like wildfire among individuals around the globe.
"None of it's true," Gibson told the Australian Women's Weekly in an interview to be published on Thursday.
"I don't want forgiveness. I just think [speaking out] was the responsible thing to do. Above anything, I would like people to say, 'Okay, she's human'," she told The Weekly.
Gibson rose to fame in May 2013 when she resorted to social media to announce to her friends that she is battling a malignant type of brain cancer with eating whole foods and alternative therapies. She also said she was only given months to live. With the vast curiosity of people to know her secret, in just days, she had thousands of followers and friends, reports ABC News.
Her creations which include a smartphone app, a book entitled, The Whole Pantry and a website were placed in hot seat after it was revealed that she never gave her earnings to charity. According to The Guardian, months after her lie was revealed, media challenged her to show medical records of her illness but she never gave a single one.
After her lies were revealed, she received backlash on social media as her followers said they felt betrayed. Meanwhile, doctors were alarmed because she might have placed cancer sufferers in danger by suggesting foods and dietary approaches that were not true and effective.