Apple Cider Vinegar, the new six-part Netflix drama series, not only tells a dramatised version of the story of Belle Gibson, an influencer who was discovered to be lying about her cancer diagnosis while creating a wellness empire, but also the people impacted by Belle's lies. One of these individuals is Lucy, a woman who is diagnosed with breast cancer, and hopes to treat it following Belle's healthy eating plan. But are Lucy and her husband Justin based on real people? Here's what we know.
Who are Lucy and Justin in Apple Cider Vinegar?
We first meet Lucy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) and Justin (Mark Coles Smith) in the first episode of Apple Cider Vinegar and after watching a montage of their love story, it's then revealed early on Lucy has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
As the series goes on, Lucy finds traditional cancer treatments, including chemotherapy difficult, and so she looks to creators like Milla (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and particularly Belle (Kaitlyn Dever) in how to cure her cancer through a healthy diet and no western medicine.
This leads to her travelling to Peru to take part in a community there who intend to heal her through natural processes.
Justin is Lucy's husband, and a journalist for The Age. He doesn't like Lucy's methods of trying to heal herself and distrusts influencers particularly Belle for the misinformation she's spreading.
Alongside his colleague Sean (Richard Davies), and with help of Chanelle (Aisha Dee), the trio look into ways of brining Belle down and exposing her lies in print.
Are Lucy and Justin based on real people?
The character of Lucy is based a fictional character and is not based on one person. Apple Cider Vinegar series creator Samantha Strauss wanted to show Belle's story is about more than just Belle and her lies, but the impact her influence had on many real people in the world and Lucy was the vehicle to show this.
"The source material offered up terrific bones for a really interesting look at the rise and fall of a con woman,” Strauss told Tudum. “But Apple Cider Vinegar is about more than that. This story just couldn’t exist without showing someone like Lucy — she is the real-world consequences.”
As for Justin, well his character and Sean's are loosely inspired by real investigative journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, who were the ones to break the story on Belle's charity claims for The Age, and later wrote a book about Belle called The Woman Who Fooled the World: Belle Gibson's Cancer Con.
However, the added element of Justin being married to a woman who has cancer appears to be a fictionalised element of the story.
Apple Cider Vinegar is available on Netflix now
