The Woman Who Fooled the World

The Woman Who Fooled the World tells the astonishing story of Belle Gibson, who convinced the world she had healed herself from terminal brain cancer with a healthy diet. She built a global business based upon her claims. There was just one problem—she'd never had cancer.

Suddenly, journalists uncovered the truth—this hero of the wellness world, with over 200,000 followers, international book deals, and a best-selling smartphone app, was a fraud. She had lied about having cancer—to her family and friends, to her business partners and publishers, and to the hundreds of thousands of people, including genuine cancer survivors, who were inspired by her Instagram posts.

Written by the same multi-award-winning journalists who uncovered the details of Gibson's lies, The Woman Who Fooled the World tracks the 23-year-old's rise to fame and fall from grace. Through interviews with the people who know her best, it unravels the mystery and motivation behind this deception and follows the public reaction to a scandal that made headlines around the world.

The Woman Who Fooled the World explores the lure of alternative cancer treatments, the cottage industry flourishing behind the wellness and 'clean eating' movements, and the power of social media. It documents the devastating impact this con had on Gibson's fans and on people suffering from cancer. Ultimately, it answers not just how, but why, Gibson was able to fool so many.

'The Woman Who Fooled the World isn't just a detonating expose, but a forensically researched, compulsively readable and frequently staggering behind-the-scenes account of an unravelling on an operative scale. It'll also restore your faith in journalism's ability to uncover the truth and expose it to light.'
-Benjamin Law, author of Gaysia and The Family Law

'Meticulously researched and elegantly composed, The Woman Who Fooled the World is a journalistic detective story for the smartphone age. Donelly and Toscano not only chart con artist Belle Gibson's rise to global acclaim and her crashing fall, they explore and explain modern society's willingness to believe in anyone, or anything, that offers hope of beating what is perhaps our greatest collective fear—cancer. For me, the book reaches its highest point when we hear from genuine cancer sufferers who believed in Gibson. Their honesty about their fears and uncertain futures counterbalances the bullshit of Gibson and her profit-minded enablers. Donelly and Toscano give a master class in old-fashioned investigative journalism and a reminder of its potency and importance.'
-Richard Baker, investigative journalist, The Age

'The Woman Who Fooled the World is a balanced and authoritative account of Gibson's career... essential reading for anyone seeking an understanding of how so many people could have fallen for her pernicious lies.'
-Simon Caterson, Irish Independent