Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘Apple Cider Vinegar,’ the shocking truth about a wellness guru comes out, shining the light on the dark side of the influencer industry. It focuses on Belle Gibson and her scam, but there are other moving parts of the story that keep the thrill and the suspense alive. One of those parts is the couple, Justin and Lucy Guthrie. The latter has breast cancer, and when she is influenced by Belle to consider other forms of medication, Justin decides to do something about the woman he knows is fake. He is joined in his quest for truth by his colleague Sean Mengotti, and together, they expose Belle and her empire of lies. Something similar happened in real life as well, but the Netflix series presents the point of view of the journalists with a fictional twist.
Justin Guthrie and Sean Mengotti are Fictional Renderings of Real Journalists
While ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ tells the true story of Belle Gibson’s scam, it takes some creative liberties to present it. The journalists, Justin Guthrie and Sean Mengotti are partially based on Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, the real reporters from The Age who exposed Gibson. However, some changes have been made to the characters and their background stories for dramatic purposes. In the show, Justin’s vendetta against Gibson becomes personal due to the impact she has had on the mindset of his wife, Lucy. In real life, neither of the journalists had that situation at home. However, there was a legion of people who had the same problem as Justin.
In their book, ‘The Woman Who Fooled the World,’ Donelly and Toscano talk about Kate Thomas and Nik Donaldson, and their journey closely resembles the one we see in the Netflix series. Kate was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through rounds and rounds of treatment. When her husband, Nik, saw that she was showing a tendency to turn away from conventional medicine, he stood his ground to stop his wife from completely giving into Belle Gibson’s lies. The show added this facet to Justin’s arc to bring more depth to his intentions while also showing the audience the false hope that Belle Gibson’s words and actions gave to millions of her followers and influenced them to give up conventional forms of treatment in favor of the lies she had cooked up.
While Justin’s personal life seems to be based on Kate and Nik’s story, his investigative arc takes almost the same trajectory as that of Donelly and Toscano’s. In the show, Belle’s former manager, Chanelle, directly reaches out to them, but in reality, she reached out to a friend who was Donelly’s editor at The Age, who forwarded the tip to the journalist. Donelly reached out to Chanelle, and, at first, he wasn’t sure if the story had any meat on it. But when he and Toscano started looking into Belle Gibson and her influence, they decided to dig deeper and find out what she was all about.
Their investigation started with her lies about her health, but the legal team advised them not to go forward with it because none of the people close to her were coming forward to prove those claims. This is when the duo decided to take another direction. They wanted to find out what else she was lying about, and that’s when they followed the money and discovered her charity fraud. They tried to reach out to her, but when she kept dodging them, they sent her a list of questions quite similar to the one we see Justin and Sean send Belle in the Netflix series. Eventually, they published an article about her fraud. When they started talking to people around her, a clearer story about her past and her string of lies came into focus, which is when they published the article about her false cancer story. From here, everything went downhill for Belle Gibson.
Beau Donelly Enjoys a High Reputation as a Journalist
Beau Donelly currently lives in Ireland and has been working as an editor for Bellingcat, an investigative journalism group based out of the Netherlands, since 2024. His exposé of Belle Gibson came out during his time with The Age, where he worked from 2014 to 2017, following which he worked for The Times before moving on to Bellingcat. Additionally, he has also worked for Storyful and The Sydney Morning Herald. He is known for his focus on social causes, having worked on award-winning stories about disability issues, sex abuse, and illegal brothels, to name a few.
His work has been recognized by the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Awards, Melbourne Press Club, MasterCard IT Journalism Awards, Walkley Award, and Quill Award. He has also been recognized for Best Feature Story by Community Newspapers of Australia. Apart from this, he regularly appears on news panels to discuss the important issues he is reporting on. As for his personal life, Beau prefers to keep it private and rarely, if ever, talks about it in public.
Nick Toscano Has Won Several Awards for His Journalism
Nick Toscano currently lives in Melbourne and works as a business reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He has previously worked for Metro Media Publishing and Fairfax Media. His specialty lies in federal politics and the labor movement, in addition to covering business workplace relations. Apart from these issues, Toscano has also extensively reported on crime and education. His sharp investigative journalism has led him to win the prestigious Walkley Award twice, in 2016 and 2019. He was also a finalist for the same in 2015.
Toscano also won the 2016 Grant Hattam Quill for Investigation Journalism award for his story about the underpayment of workers in the retail and fast food industry. He also shares his expertise on various matters while appearing in news programs and writers’ panels at literary festivals. Much like Beau Donelly, he keeps his personal life away from the spotlight and lets his work speak for itself.
Read More: Is Lucy Guthrie Based on a Real Person? Where is She Now?
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