It wasn’t that long ago when Netflix introduced viewers to con artist Anna Delvey, the woman whose story and scams have since captivated much of the world. It’s the story of an ambitious woman who blatantly lied her way to the top of the social ladder, gaining some notoriety in the process. Now, just a few years later, the streamer has a new scammer to fixate on, an Australian woman named Belle Gibson who is the focus of Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar.
In this limited series, Gibson is the new person lying to everyone. Unlike Delvey, however, the consequences of her actions are seemingly graver. In fact, when all was said and done, the wellness community was left shaken as Gibson continued to deny any wrongdoing.
Told over the course of six episodes, Apple Cider Vinegar tells the story of how Gibson faked having cancer and attracted a huge social media following as a result. She also went on to build a highly successful wellness business empire, which even involved a phone app at one point. However, everything came crashing down for Gibson after her many lies were exposed. Here’s everything you need to know about the Netflix miniseries.
That said, Alycia Debnam-Carey, who plays Milla in the miniseries, also told Today that her character is “an amalgamation of wellness influencers at the time.” Just like Milla in the series, Ainscough died from cancer in 2015.
Back in 2015, journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano delivered an explosive report that started Gibson’s unraveling. At that time, she was seemingly at the height of her faux career with a highly successful app called The Whole Pantry attracting thousands of users. Essentially, the problems started for Gibson after she solicited donations from her fans, promising to donate the money to several charitable organizations. Donnelly and Toscano would eventually reveal that Gibson never made the donations she promised. This kickstarted an investigation into the former wellness influencer’s activities and eventually, health situation.
Donnelly and Toscano later published the book The Woman Who Fooled The World: The True Story of Fake Wellness Guru Belle Gibson, which chronicles the rise and fall of Gibson. Apple Cider Vinegar creator Samantha Strauss eventually came across the book and decided to adapt it into a miniseries. “They wrote about the people who had been misled by Belle and how that had impacted them,” she told Tudum. “If the book had only been about a cancer scam, I don’t think I would have been that interested in adapting it for television.”
There are a lot of time jumps throughout the miniseries
Apple Cider Vinegar follows Gibson’s story as she goes from a pregnant mom struggling to get her first business idea off the ground to a successful wellness personality who achieved fame after claiming to be a cancer survivor. That said, the show doesn’t stick to one timeline for too long, moving the story five years ahead with each episode.
As a result, the miniseries manages to cover a lot more ground, as far as Gibson’s scams and lies go.
Kaitlyn Dever was the first choice to portray Belle Gibson
Even before taking on the onscreen portrayal of Gibson, Dever has been a familiar face in streaming. In recent years, the Phoenix native has starred in the FX series Justified and the Hulu miniseries Dopesick. Dever has also dabbled in lighter material, playing George Clooney and Julia Roberts’s daughter in the Netflix rom-com Ticket to Paradise.
With her impressive acting range, it came as no surprise that Strauss offered the lead role Dever early on in the project. “Kaitlyn is masterful,” Strauss told Tudum in another interview. “I think she’s one of the most extraordinary actors of her generation.”
The character of Milla Blake is loosely inspired by another wellness influencer
In Apple Cider Vinegar, viewers also meet Milla Blake, a woman diagnosed with cancer who decides on a holistic course of treatment for her condition. Among the inspirations for this character is a wellness influencer named Jessica Ainscough, a teen magazine editor who goes through something similar in real life.
That said, Alycia Debnam-Carey, who plays Milla in the miniseries, also told Today that her character is “an amalgamation of wellness influencers at the time.” Just like Milla in the series, Ainscough died from cancer in 2015.
Little is known about what happened to the real Belle Gibson since her fall from grace
Since being publicly exposed, Gibson has kept a low profile, only infamously appearing in a sit-down interview with 60 Minutes where she continued to claim her innocence. Since then, little has been known about her whereabouts. It also remains unclear if Gibson has paid the penalties imposed on her by the Australian federal court for her fraud.
Apple Cider Vinegar is available to stream in full on Netflix.
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