Did Belle Gibson have a second child? Truth behind Search For Instagram’s Worst Con Artist

Following on from Apple Cider Vinegar, Netflix has just dropped the ITV documentary series The Search for Instagram’s Worst Con Artist, which explores the Belle Gibson case and her false cancer claims.

There are a number of revelations in the 2023 docu-series that aren’t included in the Netflix series, which saw Kaitlyn Dever take on the role of the former health and wellness influencer while dramatizing Gibson’s rise and fall. 

Significantly, the two-part documentary speaks with cancer survivors, former friends, and family members who were all impacted by Belle Gibson’s lies. 

However, one detail that isn’t included in The Search For Instagram’s Worst Con Artist, but is depicted in Apple Cider Vinegar, is the claim that Belle had another child. 

Did Belle Gibson have a second child?

ITV

Belle Gibson claimed to have had a miscarriage with her second pregnancy in 2012. Since there are no reports of medical records, whether or not Belle was telling the truth is up for debate. 

In 2015, Woman’s Daily spoke with The Whole Pantry creator after news broke that she had lied about her cancer diagnoses. She told the outlet that she suffered the miscarriage while with her partner at the time, Clive Rothwell. 

“She becomes visibly upset when questioned about this and refuses to discuss it, other than to tearfully deny allegations it was another false health crisis,” it states. Belle went on to say Clive is “supportive but obviously devastated” by the situation. 

The alleged miscarriage is only briefly mentioned in the 2017 book The Woman Who Fooled the World by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, which Apple Cider Vinegar is inspired by. 

It reads, “Gibson said that she fell pregnant again, this time to Clive, the year before the [Whole Pantry] app was launched, but lost the baby at five months. The sorrow, she writes in her book, was the impetus for starting an Instagram account.”

As Belle wrote, “I needed something to break the negative cycle, and I realized there must be other people out there, feeling just as unsupported as I was, so I started posting on Instagram.”

Due to the many falsehoods in Belle’s story, it’s still difficult to know whether the miscarriage was another part of her lies or if it actually happened. 

Where is her son now?

ITV

One thing we know for certain is that Belle Gibson did have her son Oliver with a tradesman named Nathan Corbett in 2010. It’s believed Oli is now around 14 years old and living with Belle in Australia. 

Belle has kept her and her son out of the spotlight after she was fined but not arrested for her deception. 

In 2017, the Federal Court of Australia found Belle Gibson guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct in relation to claims about her charitable donations made through the sale of her book and app. 

Later that year, she was fined 410,000 Australian dollars. However, in 2019, she was summoned to the Federal Court to have her financial records examined, having claimed she was unable to pay towards the fine. 

During the court hearing, which unfolded in May 2019, Belle said she was living with Clive – who she said she wasn’t in a relationship with at that time – and her then-eight-year-old son in Northcote, Australia, as reported by The Age. 

What brother Nick Gibson says about Belle

ITV

An interesting aspect of The Search For Instagram’s Worst Con Artist that isn’t included in Apple Cider Vinegar is Belle’s relationship with her biological brother, Nick Gibson. 

Even he was impacted by the lies, with Belle telling the world that her brother had autism, which isn’t true. 

As he reveals in the true crime docu-series, “It was shocking. She said a lot of hurtful things about the family. 

“I’m not autistic. She made all that up. When I was growing up, I may have been a little bit slower or I was a little bit shyer and quiet, like a normal child would. But that’s who I was. 

“What she said about me and the stuff about my mom, I felt pretty upset and angry.”

Nick says he and Belle drifted apart when they got older, and that he didn’t like the way she spoke to their mom, Natalie Dal-Bello. “Belle can be very aggressive and very violent with her words,” he adds. 

However, he does address the concern the family had when Belle moved out as a young teenager to live with an older man.

Stepfather Andrew Dal-Bello says she was between 12 to 15 years old when she moved in with the man, with Nick stating, “Yeah, he just took Belle in. Personally, I didn’t like the guy from day dot. 

“I don’t know, there was something odd. We didn’t really know him that well. Mom should’ve really got to know the guy a bit better before her daughter moved in. But it wasn’t done that way.”

Both The Search For Instagram’s Worst Con Artist and Apple Cider Vinegar are streaming on Netflix now. Be sure to check out the other new docs coming out this month, and for more on the case, read about what black salve is.