Poisoned apple: Inside Netflix’s must-see Belle Gibson show
Apple Cider Vinegar, one of the most anticipated streaming television series of 2025, brings to the screen one of the most extraordinary – and fascinating – stories in recent Australian history: that of Belle Gibson, a “wellness” advocate who was swept up in a series of scandals, initially for fraudulent claims about charitable donations, and later exposed for falsely claiming to have cancer.
Who is Belle Gibson?
Belle Gibson emerged in the public spotlight in 2013 as the author of the lifestyle app The Whole Pantry, which was an instant hit and was voted Apple’s Best Food and Drink App that year. A book deal followed, plus a high-profile life as a cancer battler and philanthropist.
Kaitlyn Dever as Belle in Apple Cider Vinegar.Credit: Netflix
As with many alternative health advocates, Gibson hit all the popular touchstones, including the consumption of raw milk and the rejection of vaccination science. But there was another side to the story: that the malignant brain cancer that underwrote her career as a wellness advocate – and her claims that she was successfully treating it with diet, exercise and alternative medicine – was a complete fabrication.
What is Apple Cider Vinegar about?
Apple Cider Vinegar is the story of how Belle Gibson rose to prominence and how her fame unravelled around her. “This is a story of large-scale deception; a tale that duped millions in the reckless pursuit of attention and fame,” wrote journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano in this Good Weekend cover story, published in 2017.
Kaitlyn Dever as Belle in Apple Cider Vinegar.Credit: Netflix
Donelly and Toscano investigated the story in detail. They later co-wrote the book on which the series is based, The Woman Who Fooled The World: The True Story of a Fake Wellness Guru.
In April 2015, Gibson told The Australian Women’s Weekly she had fabricated her cancer claims. Netflix describes the series as “a cultural interrogation of the times, exploring the birth of Instagram [and] the allure and rise of wellness culture”.
Where was Apple Cider Vinegar filmed?
Netflix commissioned the series last year from the Australian production company See-Saw Films. Created by Samantha Strauss, whose credits include Nine Perfect Strangers and Dance Academy, it’s directed by Jeffrey Walker. And while it is based on Gibson’s story, the series’ narrative follows two women – Belle (Kaitlyn Dever) and fictitious Milla (Alycia Debnam-Carey), both wellness advocates on parallel trajectories in the influencer world. The series was filmed on location in Melbourne.
Ashley Zukerman as Clive and Kaitlyn Dever as Belle in Apple Cider Vinegar.Credit: Netflix
Who is in the cast?
Kaitlyn Dever, who starred in Dopesick and Unbelievable, plays Belle Gibson. Alycia Debnam-Carey, whose credits include The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart and Fear the Walking Dead, plays Milla Blake.
The production also features a large Australian ensemble, including Aisha Dee (The Bold Type), Tilda Cobham-Hervey (I Am Woman), Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origin), Matt Nable (Last King of the Cross), Ashley Zukerman (Succession), Chai Hansen (The Newsreader), Susie Porter (Wentworth), Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries) and Catherine McClements (Wentworth).
Where does the title come from?
If you were scratching your head about that one, you were not alone. Samantha Strauss told Netflix’s in-house publication Tudum that the title is intended to capture the idea of a natural substance which, in the minds of many, captures the idea of a beneficial tonic.
Apple cider vinegar, many believe, has health benefits – “despite its history of use in traditional medicine,” Wikipedia says, “there is no credible evidence to support any [of its] health claims”.
“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,” Strauss told Tudum.
So, how did it end for Belle?
In 2016, Consumer Affairs Victoria brought legal action against her for allegedly breaking Australian consumer law. The following year, Federal Court Justice Debra Mortimer ruled that Belle “had no reasonable basis to believe she had cancer”, and she was fined $410,000 for making false claims about her donations to charity.
In 2020 and 2021, police raided Belle’s home in Melbourne to seize items in the hope of settling the unpaid fines.
When is the release date for the series?
When the project was announced, its producers Liz Watts and Louise Gough said Strauss had created “a series that is searing in its comment but entertaining at its very core. It’s complex, it’s got bounce, and it’s got bite, and we love it.” No official air date has been set, but Netflix has confirmed it is coming in 2025.
Watch the Apple Cider Vinegar trailer
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