Controversy-marred Belle Gibson has finally broken her silence on the scandal surrounding her Whole Pantry app and book.
The allegedly-fraudulent cancer survivor and ‘wellness’ guru has spoken out for the first time since doubts were first raised over her story.
Belle, 23, reportedly began fearing for her safety as a result of the public backlash against her in which details of her son’s childcare, her home address and floor plan were shared online.
“Our address being posted online to a website… is not OK,” Belle told the Daily Mail Australia.
Belle said that “I understand everyone’s anger,” but because of the threat, last week “police came to our home checking in on my safety.”
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She continued: “I do think it’s important for myself and the company to recognise everyone’s anger and confusion surrounding this last week, though this doesn’t justify how others have perpetuated this or responded so maliciously.”
“At the end of the day, I am a human being on the receiving end of comments, questions and emails and even if the public are used to a digital interaction with me, it does not warrant some of the recent responses,” she said.
Belle came to notoriety after friends raised doubts over claims she survived a brain tumour for five years with alternative cancer treatments, while lead to a book deal and App of health app of her wellness philosophy, titled The Whole Pantry.
It now appears that she is under investigation by the Victorian consumer watchdog after she allegedly failed to hand over $300,000 in promised charity proceeds from the profits of her app. Her publishers Penguin have removed her book from shelves after saying that they had been “left with no other option” as they had “not received sufficient explanation from Ms Gibson, author of The Whole Pantry recipe book, in response to recent allegations.”
Apple also removed her app from sale although it was originally touted as a masthead title as part of the launch of the Apple watch. Belle has also been accused of overstating her company’s total donations to a range of different charity causes.
Belle herself has since admitted in an interview with The Australian that an announcement last year that her cancer had spread to her liver, spleen, blood and uterus was a “misdiagnosis”.
Following The Australian interview, several of Belle’s former friends and employees have since stepped forward saying they think that her story doesn’t quite add up.
“She admitted her diagnosis was questionable,” one friend said.
“I asked her when she got her diagnosis, she said she didn’t know. I asked her who gave her the diagnosis, she said Dr Phil. I asked if Dr Phil had a last name she didn’t know, he disappeared. I asked her where she saw Dr Phil, she said he came and picked [her] up from [her] house.”
Meanwhile, a former employee said: “She would post on social media that she’s been at doctor’s appointment all day but really she was just going to the dentist … she got her veneers done. She would make it sound like it was for cancer-related illness.”
Belle also told the Daily Mail that she is planning on releasing a statement addressing the medical issues later this week, but that it is taking “longer than anticipated,” because of media requests and “constantly arising issues”.
Belle said that for the moment, “the paramount focus being protecting the safety of myself and my son”.
