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It was 2013 and Kylie had been undergoing intensive and grueling chemotherapy for six months to treat her newly diagnosed lymphoma when someone asked her, “Have you heard of that girl, Belle Gibson?”
A quick internet search brought her to the carefully researched Instagram profile of an Australian health and wellness blogger with over 300,000 followers.
Each post featured dozens of flattering comments from fans around the world.
Kylie, who is also from Australia, was surprised at the finding: “Belle was beautiful, successful … she was an inspiration to many people“.
“She represented a goal in herself.”
On her Instagram profile, Belle was selling the “miracle” recipe for a cancer-curing diet.
Belle Gibson’s online presence recounted how, after learning she only had four months to live, He “cured” his inoperable brain cancer with a healthy diet.
Kylie couldn’t help but compare herself to her.
While undergoing a daily chemo session, which caused her hair to fall out, and was about to undergo her eighteenth lumbar puncture – a painful procedure in which a large needle is inserted into the spinal cord – Belle sold the miracle lifestyle recipe, cancer-free, the one she dreamed of.
“[Pensé que] maybe she was right, maybe I was doing it all wrong, “Kylie recalls.
“I was dying inside and it got worse with each treatment. I looked horrible. And she was living her best life.”
At this time the wellness industry, which is currently valued at around $ 3.8 trillion worldwide, was booming.
The general public had heard before that avocados were “superfoods” and many people tried to emulate the “healthy” lifestyle posted by bloggers without any (or little) consideration of the claims they made.
In her book, Belle said: “I empowered myself to save my own life through education, patience, determination and love“.
Fascinated by the idea of taking control of her own treatment, Kylie purchased Belle’s cookbook and app, The Whole Pantry. The brand was backed by one of the biggest publishers, Penguin, and tech giant Apple.
Desperate for improvement, Kylie woke up one day to go to the hospital and decided she was fed up with “all the needles and pricks.” It was finished.
“The chemo wasn’t working for me. [Me dije que] I had to give up and try to eat healthy. ”
“[Belle] He said what he was doing was curing his cancer, that he was getting better. ”
“I had it in front of me [como prueba]. It was on my cell phone, in magazines, on the news … so entrusted in ella“.
But Belle was not improving …
Belle has gone from being an inspiration to a disappointment for many of her followers.
In March 2015, an Australian publication revealed that Belle had falsely claimed to her subscribers that she had donated a portion of the sales of her books and apps to charity.
Soon many reporters began to wonder and investigate whether Belle was misleading people about her state of health.
“I wish we had done that before we gave him the platform to become what he has become,” says Kylie.
After his deception came to light, it was reported that Belle had lied about her cancer.
In September 2017, she was fined more than $ 300,000 by the Australian government for misleading readers into donating to charity, after being convicted of five violations of the consumer law.
A judge then said that Belle may have “really” believed what she was saying and may have suffered from “delusions” about her health.
“I was getting sicker and sicker”
Maxine, who lives in the UK, was in college when she started following Belle.
A fan of the wellness culture on Instagram, she was drawn to stories of people abandoning traditional medical treatments to treat their ailments “naturally”.
“[Belle] she was the queen of well-being “, he thinks.
Since the age of 11, Maxine has been battling her disease, ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammation of the large intestine.
The most common symptoms are diarrhea, blood loss, abdominal pain, and fatigue. It is a disease that lasts a lifetime and is usually controlled with medication.
“I struggled to receive the diagnosis,” he says.
“I was about 12 years old and a lot of doctors said to me, ‘It’s your hormones’ or ‘It’s just menstrual cramps'”.
“It made me have a negative attitude towards doctors and his approach to chronic disease because he didn’t feel like he had long-term support. ”
After missing entire semesters because of her condition, all Maxine wanted to do in college was to be like everyone else.
“I was so angry that I had to endure this disease and that I couldn’t be a normal teenager!” She exclaims.
She was also frustrated that she had gained weight from the pills and the high doses of steroids they were being treated with; she says it had a negative effect on her body image.
Out of her meds, Maxine latched onto Belle’s “clean food” app, The Whole Pantry.
Maxine saw in Belle the dream possibility of curing her chronic illness.
“It reinforced the ridiculous belief that he didn’t need drugs to control the disease.”he told BBC Three.
“I was very involved in everything related to diet. I adopted a diet based on plant foods, which seemed to eliminate many ‘toxic’ ingredients.”
Maxine left out all animal products, gluten and carbohydrates. “It was very extreme,” he says.
Soon after, she lost so much weight that she stopped having her period and his health began to deteriorate.
“After some sort of initial placebo effect, it all fell apart.”
“I thought I wasn’t eating healthy enough, that I wasn’t doing things well enough, and that I could eat even healthier foods,” she recalls.
“The more I went on this ‘perfect’ diet, the more I felt bad and the more I blamed myself for not being.”
In July 2014, Belle announced in an Instagram post that he had been diagnosed with four other types of cancer. “It’s in my blood, my spleen, my brain, my uterus and my liver”, wrote.
His supporters were devastated.
But that’s when the cracks started showing up in Belle’s story. And Maxine began to question her beliefs.
“Don’t believe everything you see on the Internet”
Kylie was shocked when she learned that Belle had lied about cancer: “I felt betrayed …Who invents something like this? “
Maxine remembers feeling very naive: “We were vulnerable, and the wellness industry came to us and said, ‘Hello, can I help you?’
No one knows why Belle did what she did.
“Belle was the queen of well-being,” says Maxine.
Since Belle went underground, the world has grown more familiar with terms like “fake news” and “disinformation.”
But Maxine warns that there is still a lot of lies promoted on social media by some who are part of the wellness industry and that “are based on usage“.
“They position themselves as people who care about people’s health, but all they do is lie and promote fear.”
“People create compelling and often completely bogus stories to sell books, lifestyles, or private labels. Don’t trust everything you see on the internet. “
Maxine hopes that by talking about it, many will stop blaming themselves for their illnesses, as she did.
And he’s also hoping social media will establish checks to make sure it’s clear in posts whether they’re evidence-based or not, and whether or not their authors are qualified to share health advice. others.
After finding out about Belle’s lies, Kylie resumed chemotherapy and her lymphoma is now in remission.
In May, Australian authorities decided to seize Belle’s property after she failed to pay the fine imposed on her.
This note originally appeared on BBC Three. You can read it in English here.
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