Helen Archer | On 30, Apr 2024

One of the real mysteries surrounding the Belle Gibson scandal is how she has, thus far, avoided being the subject of the true crime industrial complex. While there have been podcasts, articles, and one book on the subject, the wave of Netflix-style limited series that seemed inevitable after her downfall failed to appear. The BBC’s 2021 one-off, Bad Influencer: The Great Insta Con, was a muted affair, and ITV has thrown its hat into the ring with this workmanlike, two-part documentary produced by Wag TV.

Perhaps there are some still unaware of the Belle Gibson story. “Instagram’s Worst Con Artist”, as the title refers to her, was actually, for a while, its most successful con artist. Appearing a decade ago, as if from nowhere, she amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on her page, which was, ostensibly, based on healthy – or “clean” – eating, though with one important USP. Belle claimed to have used her diet to fight back the various cancers she had – most notably, an inoperable brain tumour. Doctors, she claimed, had given her just weeks to live, but her diet had somehow staved off her death – it continued to do so – and she wanted to help other cancer sufferers beat their diagnosis by following her example. That the vulnerable community she infiltrated believed her isn’t surprising – it is, to most people, an unthinkable thing to lie about – but then companies like Apple and Penguin books started throwing money at her to take her story global, without, apparently, doing any basic fact checks.

This documentary follows much the same structure, and features many of the same interviewees as appeared in the 2017 book The Woman Who Fooled the World by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano. Former fans, who saw Belle as a beacon of hope in battling their own cancers, appear alongside former friends who were instrumental in uncovering her lies. Journalist Richard Guilliatt talks about his own investigations into Belle, spurred by his wife’s cancer diagnosis and the insight that gave him. Belle’s brother is interviewed, as is her late mother’s widower. Conspicuous by their absence is Belle herself, and anybody willing to take on any liability in her rise to infamy.

Psychologists throw in their tuppence-worth, about Belle’s limited sense of identity and her need to pretend to be someone else in order to be accepted and valued. Yet Belle’s modus operandi – the infiltration of communities she had no business being in, her opaque back story, the “charities” she claimed to have set up, the people she befriended in order to grift money in their name – matches many other internet scammers we have seen over the years, so much so that there could almost be an invisible handbook.

Though we do get a small update about Belle’s activities since she was “outed”, which apparently shows that she has learnt nothing from her experience, there is no discernible reason for this documentary. Apple and Pengiun continue to decline to comment on the matter, and Belle herself has ignored any potential consequences, including the $410,000 fine she was given by the Australian Federal Court for making false claims about her donations to charity. While those whose health she jeopardised in her bid for fame are left without closure, it is unlikely that this documentary is the last word on the subject.

 

Instagram’s Worst Con Artist available on ITVX.

 

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