Belle Gibson Lied About Having Cancer, but Did She Lie About Being a Mother?

According to Psychology Today, one thing all con artists have in common is their ability to manipulate. They have powers of persuasion that could probably talk a snowman into buying an ice cream cone. Those who excel at scamming tend to have three characteristics, "psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism — which have been referred to by psychologists as 'dark' personality traits."

Obviously, we cannot diagnose Belle Gibson. But the Australian wellness influencer built a lucrative empire based on the lie that she was dying from cancer. This led to a cookbook and an app that promoted healing through clean living, which put many people's lives in danger. When it came to Gibson, it's hard to say what was real and what wasn't. For example, she claimed to have a child. Did she? Here's what we know.

Although Gibson was more than fine with inviting the world into her phantom battle with cancer, she was a bit more private when it came to her personal life. According to Woman's Day magazine, Gibson had her son in 2010. His father was her then-boyfriend, Nathan Corbett. A few years later in 2014, Gibson was at her son's 4th birthday party when she put on quite a show.

A book detailing Gibson's many grifts includes a story about her son Olivier's 4th birthday party. In The Woman Who Fooled the World, the authors describe Gibson celebrating with friends when she suddenly collapses. This would have been sometime in 2014, five years into her supposed cancer journey. She proceeded to fake a 40-minute seizure.

The guests were terrified, but Gibson didn't like going to the hospital. We now know why. Instead of calling an ambulance, they looked on in horror as she writhed around on the ground. "Oli was ... I saw his face. He was petrified," said one friend who was at the party. "The kids had to almost walk over the top of her to go upstairs. Oli had to look at his mum looking like she was almost dead on the floor."

In April 2015, Gibson was exposed as the fraudster she was and went on 60 Minutes Australia to shove the blame onto someone else. In the interview, the wellness guru claimed that she was told she had cancer by a quack doctor. A few months later, she was spotted in Melbourne by news.com.au. She was walking down the street with Nathan and Olivier. If the photos are to be believed, Gibson didn't seem very concerned about the fact that her life was completely in question.

The last time Gibson was spotted in public was in January 2020 when The Australian Women's Weekly obtained footage of the disgraced influencer. She had apparently ingratiated herself in the Oromo community of Melbourne and repeatedly referred to Ethiopia as "back home." It's unknown if her son was with her. Olivier would have been 10 years old at the time.