Where Is Bell Gibson Now — the Former Wellness Guru Lied About Having Cancer

In April 2015, Belle Gibson finally decided to tell the truth. According to the Herald Sun, the young Australian woman was 20 years old when her health issues began. She claimed that her alleged malignant brain cancer diagnosis was a reaction to the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, and was consequently given six weeks to four months to live.

That's when she decided to heal herself naturally, by way of a more holistic route.

She was able to build a massive social media following off of her claims that she was beating her brain cancer using Ayurvedic medicine, oxygen therapy, and a gluten and refined sugar-free diet, per the BBC.

Her success in this space led to an app, a cookbook, and of course a ton of money. This all crumbled when it was discovered that Gibson never had cancer. Where is she now? Here's what we know.

The last time Gibson popped up was in January 2020 when The Australian Women's Weekly obtained footage of the grifter. Gibson was far less glamorous than she was a year prior when the wellness influencer was ordered to go to court.

On that occasion, she was wearing a brand new $200 dress and $370 Saint Laurent sunglasses. In the recent photo, Gibson was free of makeup and sporting a golden brown scarf, which hid her ponytail.

In the video, Gibson is laughing while speaking with someone off-camera. "Ask me what my name is now," she says coyly. "Today our diaspora community met to discuss the current situation of Ethiopia." Gibson continues to refer to "our diaspora, Oromo" while referring to Ethiopia as "back home."

She claims the Oromo community adopted her, and was photographed taking notes at a community meeting.

One community member posted about Gibson on Facebook, warning others about her. "I have been telling our people to be careful with this lady as I have seen her story from day one but no one is listening," they wrote. "The sad part is she’s not only attending the community events but she also [sic] coming to every wedding we have."

Dr Tarekegn Chimdi, the head of Melbourne’s Ethiopian community, told the outlet, "She is exploiting the good heart of the people in our community." He went on to say, "People are not questioning when people are approaching them [whether] this is a good person. They did not know what evil she was carrying."

At first, he mistakenly thought Gibson was someone's girlfriend but after finding out what she had done, he asked her to leave their community.

In March 2017, 9News Australia reported that a federal court found that some of the claims made by Consumer Affairs Victoria against Gibson were proven to be true. Justice Debra Mortimer said, "Ms Gibson had no reasonable basis to believe she had cancer from the time she began making these claims in public to promote The Whole Pantry Book and the apps in mid-2013."

She added that Gibson's reasons for doing this were not rational and as such, she must be suffering from some type of delusion.

Gibson also claimed to have donated to various charities, most of which did not receive any money from her. Justice Mortimer continued, "She played on the empathy and generosity of the Australian community… her ‘pitch’ overwhelmingly used groups likely to evoke sympathy because of their vulnerabilities – young girls, asylum seekers, and young children."

She was ordered to pay $410,000 in fines but has yet to do so. Due to the interest accrued, she owes more than $500,000.