At the end of “Apple Cider Vinegar,” Belle Gibson’s lie comes out in a revealing interview.
“Apple Cider Vinegar” is Netflix’s latest inspiredby a true story miniseries, this time centering on the disgraced Australian wellness influencer who faked having brain cancer to launch her successful brand.
Based on the 2015 book “The Woman Who Fooled the World” by investigative journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, who uncovered the real-life Gibson’s lies, the sixth and final episode sees Belle’s (Kaitlyn Dever) secrets uncovered in her 60 Minutes Australia interview.
Wearing a hot pink turtleneck sweater, Belle tells the reporter she’s “been really transparent” about her life, claiming that she did undergo chemotherapy and radiation.
Read on for the “Apple Cider Vinegar” ending explained by the show’s creator Samantha Strauss and how it compares to the real Belle Gibson’s life.
What happens at the end of ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’?
Belle Gibson’s whole life begins to unravel by the final episode of “Apple Cider Vinegar.”
Journalists Justin (Mark Coles Smith) and Sean (Richard Davies) send Belle a lengthy email with a slew of questions that put her story in jeopardy. The journalists question her cancer diagnosis, treatment and her claims of her company donating to charities. They are preparing to publish an article on Belle’s indiscretions.
Belle receives the email on her way to the funeral of Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey), a fellow wellness influencer who treated her cancer with alternative methods.
At that time, Belle attempts to quickly make charitable donations, while putting the blame on an employee for not following through with said donations.
In conjunction, Fiona, the mom of the young boy Hunter who has cancer, calls Belle asking for the $60,000 deposit for his surgery to save his life. Belle had previously raised funds for Hunter’s treatment and never gave any to the family as promised. Fiona later tells Justin that she is stopping her son’s treatment, implying that the family did not receive any of the funds Belle promised them.
Just before Justin and Sean publish the exposé on Belle, they try to convince her partner Clive (Ashley Zukerman) to tell them the truth about her cancer claims.
When the story is published it only centers on her financial discrepancies because they don’t have sufficient evidence to prove she lied about her cancer. However, Belle begins to panic as the negative comments roll in, including accusations that she’s a liar.
Justin’s wife Lucy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), who has breast cancer and was a fan of Belle’s, replies in the article’s comments section, “Does she even have cancer?!?!? Has that ever been officially verified?” This sets off a chain of people questioning everything Belle has ever said.
Belle’s recipe book is taken off the market and it appears she is detained at an airport. When she’s face down after security grabs her, she looks to the camera and says, “This is a true story based on a lie, based on truth that wasn’t true.”
She circles around the truth in her 60 Minutes Australia interview
Flash forward three months and she, Clive and her son are now in Beverly Hills and preparing for her interview with 60 Minutes Australia. Ahead of the interview, she asks that she be paid the full $75,000 or she will call off the interview.
When asked if it’s true or false that she underwent chemotherapy and radiation for two months, Belle replies, “True.”
“True, because at the time I believed I was having radiation. Nobody want to live with the fear of a terminal illness or dying,” she replies.
The reporter adds, “But you didn’t live with that. That’s not what you had.”
Belle admits, “No, it’s not. But I lived for years with the fear that I was dying and that was horrible. And I’m still coming to terms with that, that I can take that off my shoulders now.”
Belle, circling around the truth, is asked again, “Do you have cancer?”
“I really, really hope not,” she replies.
How ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’s’ ending compares to where the real Belle Gibson is now
The episode ends with an update on the real Gibson’s life and what happened after her 60 Minutes Australia interview in 2015.
“In 2017, the Federal Court of Australia found Belle Gibson of misleading…” the sentence reads, before Dever as Belle is seen on the screen and says, “You know what? You can Google it.”
What the show doesn’t finish is that, in 2017, the Federal Court of Australia ordered Gibson to pay $410,000 in relation to her “unconscionable conduct.”
As of late 2023, she still has not paid the fine, according to authors Donelly and Toscano. A spokesperson from Consumer Affairs Victoria the journalists the agency was “continuing to pursue” Gibson and said the “entire amount” of her debt is “still outstanding.”
Speaking to TODAY.com, the show’s creator Strauss says she “always wanted” to have the 60 Minutes Australia interview be the ending of Belle’s story.
“I liked the idea of ending Belle in — I would say — a fragile place of hope,” Strauss says. “Maybe, maybe, she’s learned not to do this again. Maybe she won’t repeat the cycles of her own past. But then it also felt like, ‘OK, that’s enough of Belle.’”
The last title card, she says, was significant so people would do their own research after the show.
“With our last title card, Belle’s never paid her fine as far as we know. And she never went to jail,” Strauss says. “In lots of ways, social media was her punishment. In a show like this, which is about social media (and) what’s real, what’s not real, I think hopefully people do go on Wikipedia afterwards.”