Netflix just dropped the teaser trail for its upcoming true crime drama series Apple Cider Vinegar, set to tell the true story of Belle Gibson, also known as “Instagram’s worst con artist” – but there’s one detail it needs to get right.
We’ve been spoiled for choice when it comes to true crime dramatizations of late. In 2024 alone, Netflix dropped Monster Season 2, followed by Anna Kendrick’s masterful Woman of the Hour.
Coming up are new TV shows based on the cases of JonBenét Ramsey, Natalia Grace, and Amanda Knox. Before then, the streaming service has set its sights on Belle Gibson, the scammer who falsely claimed to have cured her terminal cancer through diet and wellness.
She profited off her lies, creating the highly successful The Whole Pantry app while exploiting the health struggles of others. This is the inspiration behind Apple Cider Vinegar, which stars Kaitlyn Dever as the Australian con artist.
Apple Cider Vinegar should explore Belle Gibson’s past
As is shown in the teaser trailer, the show is set to take place in the early days of Instagram while looking at how Gibson became enamored by the attention she received online. I just hope that it also delves into her past to show the lying didn’t stem from social media alone.
Netflix states that Apple Cider Vinegar “has its foundations in truth, but it is a work of fiction,” with creator Samantha Strauss saying, “It’s interesting to look at how media uses food as a weapon against us and how much we crave the nourishment, but how much of a privilege and how expensive it is to try to be well.”
This certainly makes for an interesting angle, and it’s well worth exploring this topic in a post-influencer world. But to truly capture the gravity of Gibson’s actions, the series would benefit from digging deeper into her psyche.
This wasn’t just a simple case of social media manipulation or a financial scam; Belle Gibson’s behavior started long before her wellness guru activities. This is unveiled in the ITV documentary series Instagram’s Worst Con Artist by the reporter who first exposed Gibson, Richard Guilliatt.
When Guilliatt approached Gibson for an interview, he wanted to try and find her pre-Whole Pantry history, but when he started digging, he noticed she had absolutely no social media presence before 2013.
So, he started to do a deep dive into the years prior, and what he found “floored” him. He discovered Belle Gibson’s interactions on a skate forum, but her online persona was “completely different to the Earth mother, natural foods guru” she was known as.
Instead, she was a dark-haired, edgy goth girl. Guilliatt couldn’t believe they were the same person, until he spotted the elbow tattoo in her old pictures. He decided to reach out to some of her friends from this era to find out more.
Former friends expose long history of lies
Among those former friends are Shelby Nagy, who met Gibson when she was 13, and Anthony de Sylva, a pal from the skating scene. They both describe how she was fun, outgoing, confident, and nothing like her Whole Pantry persona.
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Around mid-2009, de Sylva notes how Gibson started to “post crazy stories” on the forum, making claims that she’d undergone open heart surgery, had died for three minutes, and been in a coma.
In one screenshot, she wrote, “Woke up last night with bloody eyes and nose.” Her former friend describes how it was difficult to tell “what was real and what wasn’t,” but one thing’s for certain: she received a lot of attention.
Her surgery claims started several months after another skater announced his surgery for a brain tumor, which ultimately led to his death. Guilliatt later discovered that Gibson had actually befriended the skater and spoke to him about her own supposed illness.
“She could very well have taken influence from what was happening in the local skateboarding community,” says de Sylva, while Guilliatt adds, “It appeared that she would appropriate other people’s stories and absorb them into her narrative.”
In other words, Belle Gibson had been spinning elaborate lies since her teenage years, suggesting a deeper, more pathological issue at play. Given how extensively the scandal has been covered, it would be interesting for Apple Cider Vinegar to explore this side of her story.
By looking into the roots of her lies, the series could provide crucial context for how she came to spin her biggest scam yet.
Why is it called Apple Cider Vinegar?
The Netflix series goes against the grain with its title, but why? According to Strauss, “I wanted something that would capture this idea of hope in a bottle and that could be a bigger umbrella than something that would relate only to Belle.”
True crime dramas typically stick to straightforward titles, often borrowing the names of their central figures for maximum recognition – think The Belle Gibson Story or The Whole Pantry. But instead Strauss opted for something metaphorical.
As for the plot, Apple Cider Vinegar revolves around Gibson’s rise to infamy and Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey), who launches a rival wellness platform after being diagnosed with cancer.
Other than Gibson, many of the characters have been fictionalized for the story, no doubt representing those she exploited. The series is inspired by the book The Woman Who Fooled the World by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano.
There’s no release date for Apple Cider Vinegar just yet, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted when it drops. Until then, check out the most shocking documentaries on Netflix, how to watch Vice TV’s Dark Side of Reality TV, and the disturbing true story behind Don’t Pick Up the Phone.