Disgraced author and social media entrepreneur Belle Gibson has admitted to lying about having terminal cancer.
The Whole Pantry founder has broken her silence about the controversial story that she used to build her business almost two months after questions about her cancer claims and questionable fundraising activities were first raised.
In a magazine interview, Ms Gibson was asked if she has or ever had cancer.
"No … None of it's true," she told the Australian Women's Weekly. "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."
Ms Gibson launched her global business, which included the top-rating app and cookbook, off her controversial claims that she was a young mother healing herself naturally from terminal brain cancer.
She came under fire after Fairfax Media revealed in March that she had raised money in the name of five charities that had no record of receiving a donation from her. Her story of survival was soon put under the spotlight and she admitted that multiple other cancers she claimed to have suffered from may have been based on a misdiagnosis.
The 23-year-old promised an open letter to explain all, but instead went to ground. Her private and business social media accounts were wiped clean.
In the story in The Weekly, titled "My Life-long struggle with the truth", Ms Gibson gave rambling explanations for her behaviour - including saying she was diagnosed by two health practitioners - but did not go into detail about her motivations for lying.
"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]," she says. "If I don't have an answer, then I will sort of theorise it myself and come up with one. I think that's an easy thing to often revert to if you don't know what the answer is."
Ms Gibson, who grew up on the outskirts of Brisbane, has said she is estranged from her mother and never knew her father. In the interview she claims to have had a troubled childhood.
"When I started school, my mum went, 'My daughter is grown up now'. All of a sudden I was walking to school on my own, making school lunches and cleaning the house every day," she said. "It was my responsibility to do grocery shopping, do the washing, arrange medical appointments and pick up my brother. I didn't have any toys."
Ms Gibson's Australian publisher, Penguin, has admitted it never fact-checked her story or asked for evidence of her illness before publishing her cookbook late last year. The app was going to be a feature on Apple's new smart watch but these plans were dumped as the tech giant moved to distance itself from its once star developer.
The Weekly has also reported accountants were winding up The Whole Pantry business and that no profit is expected to be made.
Speaking about the turbulent weeks after her fundraising activities were exposed, Ms Gibson said the backlash had been "horrible". But she said people needed to "draw a line in the sand where they still treat someone with some level of respect or humility".
In the story, to be published on Thursday, Ms Gibson said she did not want forgiveness and was speaking out because it was "the responsible thing to do".
"Above anything, I would like people to say, 'Okay, she's human. She's obviously had a big life. She's respectfully come to the table and said what she's needed to say, and now it's time for her to grow and heal."
A former friend of Ms Gibson's who first raised doubts about her story of cancer survival said she was relieved she had finally confessed to deceiving her followers.
"If she wanted to do the responsible thing she would never have done this in the first place," she said.
"I'm relieved that I don't have to carry her burden any more and try to make things right. It's not my responsibility. It was hers and it has taken her years to do the right thing.
"It's inhumane to deceive sick and vulnerable people and charities."
The Weekly said it did not pay Ms Gibson or anyone else for the interview.
