Belle Gibson's bizarre 'Ethiopian identity' twist was not included in Apple Cider Vinegar
21 February 2025, 21:34 | Updated: 21 February 2025, 21:39
Is Belle Gibson still part of the Ethiopian Oromo community? The bizarre update that isn't included in Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar.
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Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar takes inspiration from the real life Belle Gibson's scandal, but it doesn't reveal where she is now or what happened to her after her infamous 60 Minutes Australia interview. (In fact, it straight up tells people to Google it.)
Thankfully, the docuseries The Search For Instagram's Worst Con Artist – which has just been added to Netflix's library – details the bizarre true story behind what Belle did next.
The 2023 doc features several real life people who knew Belle and at the end of the second episode, they discuss how she re-emerged a few years after her scandal in a viral video with a brand new name, claiming to be part of the Ethiopian Oromo community in Melbourne.
- Read more: What happened to Belle Gibson's son in real life?
- Read more: What happened to Belle Gibson and Clive Rothwell and are they still together?
- Read more: Is Apple Cider Vinegar's Milla Blake a real person? Here's who inspired the character
Is Belle Gibson Ethiopian?
Where is Belle Gibson now? Is she Ethiopian?
After disappearing for several years following her scandal, Belle randomly re-emerged in October 2019 after a video of her speaking as a member of the Oromo community in Melbourne, Australia went viral.
In the interview with Shabo Media, Belle is dressed in a headscarf and speaking in a broken Ethiopian dialect with an accent that's noticeably different to how she sounded in her 60 Minutes interview.
She also referred to herself under the new name of "Sabontu", as well as referring to the Oromo community as "our people" and calling Ethiopia her "home". She said she had been involved in the Oromo community for several years and started as a volunteer.
Alarm bells began ringing for those who knew of Belle's past when she stated that she had been raising money for the community. At the time, Belle still had not paid her fines after being found guilty of being "misleading" and "deceptive" in her claims of being able to cure her cancer via natural remedies.
Shortly after the video went viral, Belle was removed from the group after leaders discovered her backstory.
In 2020, Tarekegn Chimdi, president of a large Oromo diaspora organisation in Victoria, told Daily Mail Australia that Belle was never a registered volunteer.
"We hadn't been aware of this woman, and we do not know her backstory," he said. "She is not a community member, and she's also not working with the community [...] She has to stop.'"
In the documentary, journalist Richard Guilliatt says: "They were shocked to find out who she is, and she ended up being rejected by that community."
Belle's current whereabouts are not known but some recent Australian media reports say she was spotted working at a supermarket in Melbourne under the name 'Mel'.
Read more about Netflix here:
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