Throughout Apple Cider Vinegar, journalists are investigating Belle. One of them, a journalist named Justin (Mark Coles Smith), learns about Belle from his partner Lucy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), who takes solace in Belle's feed while she’s undergoing breast cancer treatment—and even decides to pause it altogether and try alternative remedies.

A new Netflix series dramatises the real-life story of Belle Gibson, the Australian wellness influencer who built an empire off the back of a non-existent brain tumour. Helen Coffey sorts reality from

In Apple Cider Vinegar, Milla Blake — a fictional character inspired by real-life “Wellness Warrior” Jess Ainscough — uses black salve on her cancer, only for the corrosive treatment to create open sores on her arms. Oh, and her cancer only gets worse because she’s avoiding actual medical intervention.

Early in Netflix’s latest tech-grifter limited series Apple Cider Vinegar, wellness influencer Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever), her voice breathy and earnest, defends herself during an interrogation. She couldn’t possibly be so morally bankrupt as to be a scammer,

Milla Blake in "Apple Cider Vinegar" shares similarities with Australian wellness influencer Jess Ainscough, who died in 2015.

In a world where influencers rule and promises of “miracle cures” multiply on social networks, the mini-series “Apple Cider Vinegar” has landed on Netflix with a storyline as captivating as it is astounding.