Embattled Belle Gibson breaks silence
Embattled health and wellness guru Belle Gibson who is accused of fabricating her illness has broken her silence, saying she fears for her family's safety after personal details were posted online.
The 23-year-old mother, who founded The Whole Pantry app and recipe book, hit back at critics and condemned ‘malicious’ campaigns against her after investigations revealed inaccuracies in her cancer survival story.
“I understand everyone’s anger,” she told the Daily Mail.
“But our address being posted online to a website is not okay."
Ms Gibson said that along with her home address, her floor plan and her son’s childcare details were also shared on social media.
“My son's childcare details were posted online in the midst of this, so I'm sure you can understand how unnecessary, concerning and threatening that is,” she said.
According to reports, police have visited Ms Gibson's home to check on her family's safety last week.
The social entrepreneur has also been accused of failing to deliver on pledges to several charities.
Her popular book, which was based on her blog and app, was due to be released in the US next month but has since been dumped by the publishing house, according to the latest reports.
Local publisher Penguin also pulled Gibson’s book from circulation in Australia.
“Despite our best endeavours, Penguin Books has not received sufficient explanation from Ms Gibson, author of The Whole Pantry recipe book, in response to recent allegations,” the company said in a statement.
“We remain hopeful that we will receive the formal assurances we have requested in the coming days.”
Ms Gibson has yet to address questions regarding her ‘cancer diagnosis’.
She told Daily Mail that she would release a statement and take questions about her medical condition later this week.
She claimed her statement had been delayed because of media requests and other 'arising issues'.
The Instagram star, who had almost 200,000 followers on her health and wellness blog, deleted all the remaining photos from her account and closed her Whole Pantry Facebook page.
“At the end of the day, I am a human being on the receiving end of comments, questions and emails and even if the public are used to a digital interaction with me, it does not warrant some of the recent responses,” she told Daily Mail.
Some of her former followers have set up a Facebook page designed to ‘expose’ her by sharing images of her drinking alcohol before she became a clean-living advocate and posting previous claims about her battle with cancer.
“The reason is simple – to educate and inform the many people who have already commented on this page feeling betrayed, deceived and let down by someone who they trusted,” they wrote.
“Many people followed this person, they believed in her and some even abandoned conventional medicine in favour of embracing her lifestyle in desperate hope they could cure their illnesses.”
Ms Gibson said the social media acounts were 'further encouraging interactions between those who were angry and encouraging personal data, information or other security-sensitive content to be shared or made light of’.
She provided screenshots of her address posted on Facebook but has yet to show evidence of her childcare or floor plan claims.
