UPDATED 02:32 EST / APRIL 22 2015

NEWS

Apple Watch default app creator Belle Gibson confesses: I never had cancer

belle gibsonBelle Gibson, the disgraced creator of the default Apple Watch app The Whole Pantry has finally confessed publicly that her various cancer stories were complete works of fiction.

Gibson, who we first covered back in March, built her iOS app, then later Apple Watch app, based on her personal blog, where she told a story that she had survived a terminal brain tumor when she was younger through healthy living. She later claimed in 2014 that she had she had since be diagnosed with multiple additional cancers.

There are many different iOS and Apple Watch creators, but Gibson stood out; not only for the 300,000 downloads of her paid iOS app, but because Apple thought so highly of her and her fictional story they invited her to Cupertino to work with them on delivering an Apple Watch app, which was then subsequently promoted in Apple marketing materials as a default app on the watch.

Apple, who was founded by the late Steve Jobs, a man who was particularly fond of alternative medicines, never bothered to question that Gibson was promoting her app through a fanciful story that not only did she cure herself of cancer through healthy living, but others could as well.

Gibson has told the Australian Women’s Weekly that none of her claimed illnesses were true.

“No. None of it’s true…I don’t want forgiveness, I just think [speaking out] was the responsible thing to do. Above anything, I would like people to say, ‘Okay, she’s human.'”

“I am still jumping between what I think I know and what is reality. I have lived it and I’m not really there yet,” she said.

The magazine, not exactly known for its high-quality reporting, suggests that Gibson may be suffering from the psychological condition Munchausen syndrome, where sufferers feign disease or illness to gain attention.

That’s one way of describing, or excusing out and out fraud.

“I think my life has just got so many complexities around it and within it, that it’s just easier to assume [I’m lying],” Gibson added of the diagnoses.

“If I don’t have an answer, then I will sort of theorize it myself and come up with one. I think that’s an easy thing too often revert to if you don’t know what the answer is.”

Gibson’s app was pulled from the app store, but it’s not clear at the time of writing whether it is still available on the Apple Watch. Apple has made no public comment on the matter.

(Img credit: Belle Gibson/ Twitter)

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU