The Woman Who Fooled the World: Belle Gibson’s Cancer Con and the Darkness at the Heart of the Wellness Industry

Investigative journalists Donelly and Toscano recount the story of a charismatic woman who used claims of a cancer diagnosis to build a wellness empire, depicting her as a fraud and an exemplar of how social media facilitates the spread of bad information. In 2014, Australian Belle Gibson, who said she had kept her brain cancer at bay with healthy eating and living rather than medical treatments, was a darling in the world of alternative medicine and its adherents on Instagram and Facebook. She had a bestselling app and a book contract for her cookbook, The Whole Pantry. But it was all a lie, and Donelly and Toscano were among the reporters who exposed the truth in 2015. For this book, they interview real cancer patients affected by Gibson’s claims, doctors who treat cancer, and Gibson’s estranged family members and friends. They also quote extensively from her social media posts and the comments of her followers to both consider Gibson’s possible motivations and discuss the broader dangers that have arisen throughout history when “wellness practitioners” claim to be able to cure serious diseases. This fascinating and thoroughly reported tale will have readers casting a gimlet eye on both the wellness industry and social media. (Apr.)