Journalist Tara Brown has reflected on her bombshell 2015 interview with infamous scammer Belle Gibson and the never-seen-before moment when the con artist broke down.
The veteran 60 Minutes presenter pondered whether Gibson had ‘never been asked to take account for her lies’ before their interview in a new documentary Dangerous Lies: Unmasking Belle Gibson, which aired on Channel Nine on Monday night.
It follows the recent release of Netflix’s new drama series, Apple Cider Vinegar, about the wellness empire Gibson created off the back of a fake cancer diagnosis.
Both programs have reminded the world of Gibson’s heinous lies of curing cancer with alternative therapies and how it all unravelled during the trainwreck 60 Minutes interview 10 years ago.
‘We wanted her to tell us what was going on, but in a truthful way,’ Brown recalled.
‘It’s her responsibility to tell the truth, it’s just mine to say you’re not right now doing that.’
She said that Gibson appeared to be polite and ‘friendly’ when she first arrived for interview.
However, her inability to directly answer even the most basic questions – such as her age – exhausted the veteran interviewer.
Tara Brown recalled the moment she became fed-up with cancer fraud Belle Gibson (pictured) during a 60 Minutes interview in 2015
After reviewing Gibson’s non-existent cancer diagnosis and the apparent lying doctor who falsely told her she had a brain tumour, Brown questioned why Gibson withheld medical documents which would prove her story true.
‘We’ve already asked for background information. We’ve asked for all your medical records and your medical history,’ Brown told Gibson in 2015.
‘You haven’t given us any dates. You haven’t given us any brain scans, you haven’t given us any MRIs, you haven’t given us any tissue tests.
‘You haven’t given us anything.’
Gibson replied: ‘I wasn’t explicitly asked for any of that, but I have it.’
Seemingly fed-up, Brown answered: ‘Belle, Belle, Belle, please.
‘You’re interested in getting to the bottom of this and presenting the facts as they are, or you’re not, okay?’
Monday night’s documentary also aired never-seen-before footage of Gibson tearing up and asking to leave the room after a series of blunt questions from Brown.
At one point Gibson asked to leave the room to collect herself, Brown (pictured) said of the moment: ‘I didn’t want her to be upset but it didn’t mean that she should have avoided the questions’
‘Can we have a minute, because I’m feeling really belittled,’ Gibson said.
Brown replied: ‘I’m not, I’m not belittling you, I’m actually trying to understand.’
Reflecting on the moment 10 years on, Brown said: ‘She had fooled the world, in a dangerous way.
‘I didn’t want her to be upset but it didn’t mean that she should have avoided the questions.
‘During the interview, there was a point where Belle Gibson got very upset and she needed to leave the room.
‘I don’t know whether she felt attacked, or she felt that it was all unraveling, or she’d never been asked to account for her lies but yeah, she needed a breather.’
Brown also directly asked Gibson: ‘Would you accept that you’re a pathological liar?’
Gibson had a simple reply: ‘No.’
Gibson (pictured) is the centre of Netflix’s new series Apple Cider Vinegar, which tells how she lied about having brain cancer to build a wellness empire
Overall, Brown had hoped her 2015 interview served as a cautionary tale to not believe everything you see online, where Gibson amassed her cult following.
‘I hope it leads to people questioning a bit more,’ she said.
‘I would hate to be Belle Gibson, I would hate to be associated with her.
‘If there’s any sense of remorse, or shame, or even insight into what she did – there’s nowhere to hide now, is there?’
Belle Gibson did not respond to Nine’s request for comment.
The documentary also featured interviews with cancer survivor Kate Thomas, who threw herself into Gibson’s world of alternative wellness after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and Chanel, a close friend of Gibson’s during her heyday.
Her brother Nick Gibson also opened up about their upbringing and the close relationship they once shared.
