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Apple Cider Vinegar: Meet the 5 Real Life People Behind Characters' From Netflix's New Hit; Find Out Where They Are Now
Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar highlighted the life of a scandalous wellness influencer. However, some characters may not be authentic to real-life individuals. Find out who they are on the show vs in real life!
Netflix’s latest show Apple Cider Vinegar got the internet buzzing! But it also left the viewers with several questions like whether everything shown in the series is factual. Well, the answer is no! The creators have taken the liberty to tweak certain plotlines and characters.
Although Belle Gibson is portrayed authentically, certain side characters have been renamed to maintain anonymity. We have curated a list of 5 characters, describing who they are in real life and what altercation was made for the show.
Belle Gibson
The story revolves around Belle Gibson who created a wellness empire by lying about her terminal brain cancer diagnosis on social media. She is based on the real-life influencer Belle Gibson who left people in shock with her elaborate scheming and lying in the 2010s.
She created an empire, started a wellness app, and continued the facade until two Australian journalists found a loophole and investigated till they uncovered her true face. Although Gibson's whereabouts are unknown, she's believed to be living in Melbourne and maintaining a low profile.
Milla Blake
Milla Blake was shown as Belle’s arch-rival on the show. Although this character doesn’t exist in real life, she was based on wellness influencer Jessica Ainscough, a teen magazine editor who went viral for sharing how she improved her cancer without chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Similar to Milla (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Ainscough was diagnosed with a rare soft-tissue cancer called Epithelioid Sarcoma. The latter succumbed to her terminal illness at the age of 29.
Chantelle
This character played by Aisha Dee is not a real character but is based on two different individuals associated with Gibson’s life. One is Ainscough’s manager, mentioned in the book The Woman Who Fooled the World. The other is Gibson’s close friend Chanelle McAuliffe who played a pivotal role in exposing Gibson’s scandal.
McAuliffe was last seen in the 2024 ITV documentary Instagram’s Worst Con Artist. She often gives press bites discussing her decision to expose her friend's scandal. "I just wanted to stop her from causing harm,” she said in an interview with Woman’s Day.
Clive Rotwell
This character is based on a real-life individual of the same name. Clive, played by Ashley Zukerman, was Gibson’s partner and the duo’s relationship was far from healthy. He became a father figure to Gibson’s son and helped her officially register her brand but that was before he became suspicious of fraud.
But despite discovering the truth he stood by the infamous influencer and her son out of love. Since Gibson's trial in 2019 and 2023, Rotwell has been maintaining a low profile and was spotted moving to a different town.
Justin
This character isn’t real but loosely based on the Australian investigative journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano who uncovered Gibson’s truth. In real life, the journalist duo exposed her false claim about donating her revenue to charity when no trace of transfer was found. They also blasted Gibson for publicly lying about her age and much more. However, there's no information on their whereabouts as of today.
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