Founded in 2012 by teenager Megan Bhari and her mother Jean O'Brien, Believe in Magic raised hundreds of thousands of pounds and attracted support from celebrities including One Direction (Megan’s favourite band), who helped the charity raise an estimated £400,000 through fundraising efforts.
The charity claimed to grant wishes and special experiences to seriously ill children - a cause seemingly close to both Jean and Megan’s hearts, given the latter was said to be dealing with a life-threatening brain tumour.
But years later, investigations revealed serious concerns about the charity's finances and the claims surrounding Megan's illness. In 2017, the Charity Commission froze the charity's accounts after discovering that more than £100,000 in donations could not be accounted for and that funds had been transferred into Jean O'Brien's personal account.
Believe in Magic eventually closed in 2020.
Following Megan's death in 2018 at the age of 23, a coroner found she did not have a brain tumour; instead her cause of death was determined to be acute cardiac arrhythmia linked to fatty liver disease. The post-mortem found her brain was "morphologically normal".
Now, Megan's half-sister Nina has spoken publicly about the case in her first newspaper interview with The Times, claiming she had doubts about the family's story for years. This is what she had to see about her mother, sister and Believe in Magic…
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Who is Megan Bhari’s sister, Nina?
Nina is Megan Bhari's older half-sister. She grew up with Jean O'Brien and her siblings, and Megan was born when Nina was 12 years old.
Speaking to The Times, Nina recalled Megan as a child with "the chubbiest cheeks" and described her younger sister as "adorable".
However, Nina said she became increasingly concerned about claims regarding Megan's health as the years went on, claiming that both she and Jean would make bold statements about Megan being unable to move her head or walk (even though to Nina, she appeared just fine).
Reflecting on the charity's rise, Nina said she felt something was off from the start: "I was watching from a distance, frustrated because I felt it was all built on a lie."
She adds that Jean would describe Megan facing debilitating symptoms that she never saw evidence of and recalled incidents that she viewed as theatrical attempts to convince others Megan was seriously unwell (e.g. Megan ‘fainting’ in front of her, then walking out when she didn’t get a reaction from Nina).
Nina said her surfaced early but that she found it difficult to challenge her mother directly. "I wasn't quite sure what was the truth and what wasn't," she explained.
What has Megan Bhari’s sister said about their mother, Jean O’Brien?
While Megan was often portrayed as the villain and leader of the deception after the scandal emerged, Nina argues that the reality was more complicated and feels her sister may have been a victim of fabricated or induced illness (FII), previously known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
This is a form of abuse in which a caregiver exaggerates, fabricates or induces illness in someone under their care, with one of the most notable cases in history involving Gypsy-Rose Blanchard and her mother, Dee Dee.
Nina has described an unhealthy dynamic between mother and daughter, claiming Jean infantilised Megan and exerted significant influence over her life, recalling that Megan seemed super young for her age, loving Disney and often speaking in a babyish voice.
"I feel like Meg needed someone to speak for her,” Nina has since said. “Meg didn't really have a voice. She can't speak for herself."
In an earlier 2023 interview with the BBC, two of Megan’s sisters, who remained anonymous, described their own childhoods with Jean and alleged that their mother would deliberately pile tin cans high, causing them to regularly fall onto the dining table below. Reflecting on those incidents, one sister suggested Jean appeared to thrive on the drama and attention that accidents could bring – alleging it was as though her parent wanted her to be injured.
Meanwhile, another half-sister recalled developing a condition affecting her kidneys when she was nine years old, which eventually required a transplant.
She claims she was regularly given cups of salty Bovril by Jean, despite high salt intake being generally discouraged for people with kidney problems. “Was it a deliberate thing?" she has since questioned.
Neither claim has been independently proven, and Jean O'Brien has consistently denied allegations that she harmed her children. Speaking about Megan in particular, Jean previously said suggestions she had done wrong by her were "absolutely sickening".
What happened to Megan Bhari's sister, Nina?
On the whole, Nina has chosen to remain out of the spotlight, but she does appear in the BBC’s documentary series, The Mother of All Cons.
The Mother of All Cons begins on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on 30 May
