Everything Belle Gibson has said about her childhood (and whether it’s actually true)

After Netflix’s new show Apple Cider Vinegar, we’re all really interested again in Belle Gibson. She’s a wellness influencer who claimed to have cured her terminal brain cancer with a special diet and other holistic treatments – except she lied about having cancer in the first place. It turns out that Belle Gibson made many other dramatic claims about her life, including her childhood. Some of these stories are definitely not true. A few of them could be – we don’t know for certain. Here are all the dramatic things Belle Gibson said about her childhood, plus whether her claims are true or not.

Belle Gibson used to lie about how old she was

Her birth certificate and financial documents say her date of birth is 8th October 1991. That makes her 21 when she launched her wellness app The Whole Pantry, and 23 when her scam was exposed in 2015. Belle actually kept claiming in 2015 that she was 26, until she was proven otherwise in the famous 60 Minutes Australia interview.

She said “I’ve always been raised as being currently a 26-year-old”, “I believe that I am 26” and “we’ll have to keep digging, because it’s not something I’ve ever had answers for”. Then the journalist Tara Brown pointed out she’d been filling in financial forms for her The Whole Pantry business with her correct date of birth.

Belle also said in the same interview her name had been changed four times. We don’t know whether that’s true.

She claimed her mother made her do all the household chores from the age of six

Young Belle Gibson
(Images via 60 Minutes Australia / YouTube)

Most Read

What happened to Belle Gibson’s boyfriend, son and family after her scam in Apple Cider Vinegar

Right, what did Grace *actually* say in those Love Island screenshots and are they real?

Here’s what tragically happened to the anglerfish after it swam to the surface

In one interview, Belle claimed she had to cook for her whole family from the age of six, because her mother had multiple sclerosis and her brother had autism. She said she had to stand on a chair to reach the stove. Belle Gibson also told  Australian Woman’s Weekly in 2015: “I was walking to school on my own, making school lunches and 
cleaning the house every day. It was my responsibility to do grocery shopping, do the washing, arrange medical appointments and pick up my brother. I didn’t have toys.”

Her mother contradicted this. She told the same magazine: “What a lot of rubbish. Belle never cared for me, her brother is not autistic, and she’s barely done a minute’s housework in her life. I’ve practically worked myself into an early grave to give that girl everything she wanted in life.”

Belle Gibson’s mother Natalie Del-Bello really did have multiple sclerosis, and sadly passed away in 2017. Nick, Belle’s brother, was never diagnosed with autism. He spoke in the 60 Minutes Australia documentary about how Belle kept calling him a “r*tard” when they were kids, and it really impacted his self-esteem.

Apparently she ran away from home aged 12?!

Belle Gibson repeatedly said she moved to Brisbane when she was 12 by herself, became permanently estranged from her mother, and moved in with a friend from school. She wrote in The Whole Pantry recipe book, “I moved out of home when I was twelve years young, changing my life forever.”

The Netflix show Apple Cider Vinegar mentions the story of her running away from home at age 12.

We don’t know how truthful this is. Her classmates from high school do remember her brother, which suggests Belle maybe wasn’t entirely estranged from the rest of her family beyond the age of 12?

Belle Gibson claimed she was homeschooled

Photos of Belle Gibson as a teenager
(Images via 60 Minutes Australia / YouTube)

She used to write about it on Facebook. Except she can’t have been homeschooled for her whole life, because records show she went to Wynnum State High School in Brisbane.

She said she studied web development and business

Well, she might have watched some YouTube videos. Belle Gibson’s app The Whole Pantry was initially very popular, so she must have had some knowledge of this area. But she definitely didn’t study web development at university.

While Belle Gibson was a teenager, she worked in sales for a catering supply company called PFD Food Services. She moved to Perth in 2008 when she was about 17, and got a job at a call centre for an insurance firm.

Apple Cider Vinegar is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Featured images by 60 Minutes Australia via YouTube.