I don’t have cancer: social media entrepreneur Belle Gibson

Social media entrepreneur Belle Gibson has admitted claims of multiple cancers are false, confirming an earlier investigation.

Belle Gibson at the Cosmopolitan magazine's Fun Fearless Female awards in Sydney in 2014.

Social media entrepreneur Belle Gibson has admitted her claims of suffering multiple cancers are false, confirming an investigation by The Australian.

In an interview to be published tomorrow in Women’s Weekly magazine, the 23-year-old says she does not have an inoperable brain tumour, as she has claimed since 2009, or cancers of her spleen, uterus, blood and liver.

“None of it’s true,” Gibson is quoted as saying.

Gibson launched an inter­national health and wellness brand on the back of her cancer claims, publishing a book with Penguin, launching a series of apps with Apple and running a ­social media business, The Whole Pantry. She claimed to be treating herself with natural therapies and health food.

Her story and her business ­unravelled rapidly after The Australian revealed she had been making dramatic and unlikely medical claims since her teens.

But she had offered no explanation until now, and Penguin Books said she had steadfastly ­refused to meet the company.

In the Women’s Weekly interview, Gibson offers convoluted explanations for her actions, claiming two health practitioners diagnosed her cancers in 2009 and 2011.

The magazine says it could find no record of one practitioner and admits her account is at times implausible, speculating she night be suffering a psychological disorder such as Munchausen syndrome.

Gibson does not acknowledge lying, and says, “I don’t think I am so psychologically damaged that I manufactured everything.” She appears to suggest that childhood deprivation affected her psychologically, but declined to help the magazine contact her mother.

Women’s Weekly says it did not pay for the story and was ­offered the interview by a “corp­orate advisory” firm that Gibson hired after she was exposed.

The story says Gibson is due to meet Penguin Books, which published The Whole Pantry last year and was forced to withdraw it and cancel plans for British publication.

Penguin said yesterday that it knew nothing about a meeting. “We are disappointed that, despite several requests for clarification regarding recent ­allegations made against her, Belle is yet to res­pond to us ­directly,” a spokesman said.

“We have read with interest her recent interview and are considering our rights and options as set out in our agreement with her.”

The Australian sought comment from Apple, but did not ­receive a reply.

Gibson is under investigation by Victorian authorities over allegations that she raised money for charities, but failed to pass on the funds.

Gibson launched The Whole Pantry in 2013 after building a ­devoted following on social media with her claim that she had survived terminal brain cancer using natural therapies and health food. Her book contained a dramatic account of her doctor telling her in 2009 that she had only four months to live.