Disgraced author and entrepreneur Belle Gibson has given her first televised interview after it was revealed she had lied about a cancer diagnosis in order to promote her wellness philosophy.
The Australian entrepreneur has spoken to 60 Minutes’ Tara Brown, in an interview to air on Sunday night.
In a 30-second clip released by Channel Nine, Brown asks Gibson, “Belle, are you prepared to tell the truth today? The whole truth?”.
Gibson says she is “absolutely” prepared to tell the truth, adding, “I’m not trying to get away with anything”.
After asserting that she had been “really transparent”, Gibson goes on to tell Brown, “I have lost everything”.
“No … None of it’s true,” she told the Weekly.
“I am still jumping between what I think I know and what is reality. I have lived it and I’m not really there yet.”
Gibson rose to fame as the author of The Whole Pantry, a wellness app containing recipes that she claimed had helped her manage to ward off cancer without undergoing medical treatment.
Her app was named runner-up for the Best iPhone App of 2013 by Apple, and she won Cosmopolitan’s Fun and Fearless Female award for social media.
Gibson’s story first started to unravel in March, after Fairfax Media revealed she had raised money for several charities that had no record of receiving a donation from her.
Friends of Ms Gibson’s also questioned whether she had ever been diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Read more at Belle Gibson 60 Minutes interview: ‘I have lost everything’