- Netflix’s “Apple Cider Vinegar” explores Belle Gibson’s fake cancer claims and wellness empire.
- The show fictionalizes real events, focusing on Gibson’s business and fraudulent health claims.
- Chanelle, a character in the show, is inspired by real-life figures linked to Gibson’s story.
Netflix’s “Apple Cider Vinegar” is a fictionalized take on the story of influencer Belle Gibson, an Australian woman who built a wellness empire in the 2010s on claims that healthy living was helping her treat her terminal brain cancer. But it all fell apart when it was revealed that Gibson never had the disease at all.
In the Netflix series, Kaitlyn Dever’s Belle is ultimately taken down by a pair of reporters thanks to a tip from Belle’s former manager Chanelle (Aisha Dee). Things are complicated by the fact that before managing Belle, Chanelle also managed Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey) — a childhood friend who also built her brand around attempting to treat her cancer via alternative methods.
Like Milla, the Chanelle character isn’t exactly the same in real life. But she shares a lot— including a first name — with the woman who is likely her real-life counterpart.
Chanelle works with both Milla and Belle in ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’
In the Netflix series, Chanelle joins Milla’s team after her business starts to take off to help her to secure brand deals. She meets Belle at a Cosmopolitan awards ceremony she’s attending with Milla, who’s up for an award in the same category as Belle (Belle wins). The three women meet at the after-party, where Chanelle and Belle bond after Milla leaves.
As Milla works on launching her juice line, Chanelle works with Belle to support the launch of her app, The Whole Pantry, on the Apple Watch. But as Chanelle is exposed to the more glamorous aspects of Belle’s lifestyle, she starts to have doubts about her story.
Eventually, she confronts Belle and explicitly asks if she has brain cancer. Belle deflects, but the two seemingly come to an agreement to cancel her deal with Apple and the publishing of her cookbook. Instead, however, Belle doubles down on the lie and claims on social media that she’s been diagnosed with multiple additional cancers.
After The Whole Pantry cookbook launch, Chanelle tells two reporters at The Age that Belle is a fraud. While they’re unable to report any information about Belle’s health, they publish a story with evidence that she hadn’t followed through on multiple promised charitable donations.
Chanelle stops working with Belle, but later runs into her at Milla’s funeral. (Milla, unlike Belle, actually had cancer.) Later, Chanelle is seen planting trees with Milla’s father and fiancé.
Chanelle is based on one of Belle’s former friends — but there are a few differences
Chanelle is likely based on Chanelle McAuliffe, though there are a few key differences between the character and the real-life woman, who told The Sunday Times she was not consulted for the Netflix series.
McAuliffe told The Sunday Times that she met Gibson at the 2013 launch party for her app, The Whole Pantry. Though she never explicitly worked with Gibson, as Chanelle does in the show, she started to suspect Gibson’s claims were fraudulent after befriending her.
“She was doing this strict protocol of healing herself from cancer with nautral wellness remedies and clean eating,” McAuliffe told the publication. “But she would go to the solarium, which obviously increases the risk of skin cancer, and she would get drunk at times. She was not sharing any of this with her community.”
After Gibson collapsed at her son’s birthday party but refused an ambulance, McAuliffe said she confronted Gibson and asked her to produce documentation that she had cancer.
When Gibson dodged the question and refused, McAuliffe went to the press, giving reporter Beau Donnelly a tip about Gibson. He and his colleague Nick Toscana then reported in the Sydney Morning Herald that Gibson had failed to follow through on multiple promised charitable donations. The pair went on to write the 2017 book “The Woman Who Fooled The World,” which serves as the basis for “Apple Cider Vinegar.”
In “Apple Cider Vinegar,” Chanelle also works as Milla’s manager, and is one of her childhood friends. In reality, McAuliffe did not work with Jess Ainscough, the real Australian influencer whose story resembles Milla’s. Ainscough’s manager was Yvette Luciano; Ainscough died of epithelioid sarcoma in 2015.
In real life, Gibson had little more than a tenuous connection to Aincough, too: Donnelly and Toscana report in their book that Luciano was confused to see Gibson make an appearance at Ainscough’s funeral. After Ainscough’s death, Yvette wrote on social media that Gibson and Ainscough were not friends, and did not have a relationship “beyond an Instagram or two.”
“Apple Cider Vinegar” is streaming in full on Netflix.
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