Highlights
‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ was one of the highly anticipated Netflix series in 2025. Starring Kaitlyn Dever as Belle Gibson, this six-episode drama is currently streaming on the platform and has triggered quite a lot of buzz around it.
Inspired by a true story based on a lie, ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ explores the dark side of terminal cancer and wellness. Created by Samantha Strauss, this series looks into the birth of Instagram, the age of innocence on social media, and the rise of wellness culture.
‘Apple Cider Vinegar‘ really does an amazing job at highlighting the confusion surrounding the traditional medical world and the wellness industry. The series also sheds light on one of the most important human behaviours: Why do we lie?
What is ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ really about?
Samantha was living in Melbourne during the real-life Belle Gibson’s success in the early 2010s. Through ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’, the creator is trying to help the audience better understand the cultural essence of that particular period.
Set during the early days of Instagram, this Netflix series looks deep into the lives of a couple of women. One of them is trying to change the world ‘unknowingly’, and the other person is seeking to turn her life around and possibly of those around her ‘knowingly’.
Essentially, Belle and Milla (Alycia Debnam-Carey) are set to cure their life-threatening illnesses through health and wellness, influencing their global online communities in the process. Milla does have the cancer. But we can’t say the same for Belle.
‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ is inspired by the 2017 book ‘The Woman Who Fooled The World’ by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano. The real-life Belle has not been paid for this series. Through this article, I’ll address three questions (no spoilers):
1. Does Belle Gibson actually have brain cancer?
2. What really happened to Belle Gibson?
3. Why did Belle Gibson choose to lie?
Does Belle Gibson actually have brain cancer?
This is an important question. In Episode 1 of ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’, you can find Belle Gibson telling people on the internet that she has cancer, when she is pregnant with her son. For the rest of the series, she is repeatedly asked if her claim is true.
Interestingly, Belle has never denied that she does not have cancer. At the end of the first episode, a medical record beside the lead character says her brain scan is ‘normal’. But in Episode 4, Belle visits Dr Phil, an alleged medical professional.
When Phil hooks the lead character to a machine and tells her there is a “cluster” and “DNA damage” and “tumor”, Belle bursts into tears. In the finale, when asked (again) about if she has cancer, Belle says: “I really, really hope not.”
What really happens to Belle Gibson?
Belle is a real person. She is inspired by a woman with the same name – an influencer who claimed to have defeated her terminal brain cancer through alternative therapies and nutrition. The real Belle was not part of the production of the story.
‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ is a fictionalised series inspired by the aforementioned book. Kaitlyn Dever – the actor playing the character – has described Belle as “so good at being a chameleon, taking on totally different personas, and doing everything she can to get what she wants.”
Kaitlyn has called Belle in the drama series “ruthless” and “determined”. This is about a time when Instagram has just started to pick up, peak ‘girlboss’ start-up culture is in the air, and the age of innocence on social media is very much present.
The situation has already turned South. Her lie is partially exposed. Belle spends her time in California to rehabilitate her image. She speaks to Australian 60 minutes and offers her “I really, really hope not” response to the repeatedly asked question for a final time.
Why did Belle Gibson choose to lie?
Belle starts lying about her malignant brain cancer diagnosis on a pregnancy message board. People start responding to her sympathetically. One netizen introduces her to Milla – a true cancer patient who is trying alternative wellness – juicing and coffee enemas.
Belle strikes up a friendship with Milla. In the near future, she also launched ‘The Whole Pantry’ app to highlight the ‘lie’ that ‘whole’ eating treated her terminal cancer for good. She encourages others to trace her footsteps – and so do many of them, unfortunately.
Belle Gibson probably got so used to telling her false cancer diagnosis that she forgot it wasn’t true. “You tell a lie enough times, you perhaps believe it,” according to Samantha. Kaitlyn also believes that Belle’s traumatic youth is the source of her deceptions.
“I do believe that a lot of what led her to lie is based solely on her childhood and her upbringing,” said Kaitlyn. Belle in ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ fled home at the age of 12. Did she think of herself as a scammer or as someone who was helping people?
‘Apple Cider Vinegar’: Cast details
1. Kaitlyn Dever as Belle Gibson
IG: instagram.com/KaitlynDever/
2. Alycia Debnam-Carey as Milla Blake
IG: instagram.com/alyciajasmin/
3. Aisha Dee as Chanelle
4. Tilda Cobham-Hervey as Lucy
5. Mark Coles Smith as Justin
IG: instagram.com/markcolessmith/
6. Ashley Zukerman as Clive
IG: instagram.com/ashzukerman/
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