Belle Gibson’s Netflix drama Apple Cider Vinegar is SLAMMED by fuming influencer – as mummy blogger breaks her silence over her role in the hit show: ‘Vegans wanted to kill me’

A furious wellness blogger has called in lawyers over her portrayal in the hit Netflix drama Apple Cider Vinegar and revealed the nightmare she suffered after being linked to cancer fraud Belle Gibson.

American mother-of-two Jordan Younger, 34, ran a successful blog called The Blonde Vegan and is portrayed in the show by Aussie actress Kate Lister.

The drama shows the blogger as a globetrotting sensation who whisked Gibson over to the US in her private jet and tearfully confided she had to give up veganism on medical advice.

In a key moment of the drama, Gibson – played by American Kaitlyn Dever – tells Younger’s character: ‘If the story isn’t working for you any more, change the story.

‘Change the story, change the world.’

But now Younger has slammed the show for being a ‘hit piece on wellness’ which trivialised her ordeal, and was incensed by the choice of actress to play her instead of a big-name star like Dakota Fanning.

‘(It was a) really emotionally distressing time in my life where the vegans wanted to kill me,’ she confessed in an hour-long special episode of her Soul On Fire podcast.

‘A failed vegan with a private jet – that’s what they said about me. You can’t fail at being a vegan, I have so many bones to pick.’

Belle Gibson, played by Kaitlyn Dever, and Jordan Younger, played by Kate Lister, (pictured here together) as they were portrayed in the Netflix drama Apple Cider Vinegar

In the show, the pair first met at an Apple event to launch Gibson’s Whole Pantry app.

But in reality Younger first met Gibson in New York in 2013 at a five-hour dinner where they held hands and bonded as they wept at Gibsons’ brain cancer diagnosis.

After their heart-to-heart over dinner at an organic restaurant, Gibson then turned up at an event she was hosting.

‘I felt terrible for this woman and she cried with me and portrayed strength and told me she was not afraid of death – and it was so inspiring,’ Younger remembered. 

‘She was very loving, very very into asking me a lot questions. I didn’t realise she was love bombing me.

‘Then I think it was the very next day she impromptu came to an event I was hosting. This was the event that I stood up on a table to tell everyone I was no longer a vegan.

‘She barely made herself known at that event although we took some pictures together.’

Belle Gibson attended an event that Jordan Younger (pictured together, centre, in real life) hosted after the pair bonded over a five hour lunch

American Jordan Younger was incensed by the choice of Australian actress Kate Lister to play her (Lister is pictured with co-star Phoenix Raei)

Jordan Younger says Dakota Fanning (pictured) would have been a better choice to play her 

The drama claims to be a ‘true story based on a lie’, but includes a disclaimer in the credits: ‘The following is inspired by a true story.

‘Certain characters and events have been created or fictionalised.’

But Younger – who still promotes healing through healthy eating via her own app and books – has lashed the show for picking on her in the way she appears in the drama.

‘I didn’t even know it was legal to portray someone through a scripted TV show without their permission,’ she added. 

‘They made it look so stupid, which in my opinion, the writers of the show, the directors, the producers, they probably know who I am and probably don’t like me.

‘And “Let’s change everybody else’s name except for hers”? It’s strange.’

She took legal advice over the way she was seen onscreen and initially planned to sue Netflix and the producers. 

But she says her lawyers advised her ‘not to use her energy in negative ways.’

The series traces Belle Gibson’s rise to prominence as she builds a global wellness empire off the back of fraudulent claims she had beaten brain cancer through healthy eating

Apple Cider Vinegar series, starrying Kaitlyn Dever (pictured), claims to be a ‘true story based on a lie’, but includes a disclaimer in the credits admitting some parts are fictionalised

‘I am so happy I am not the centrepiece of this show but imagine seeing yourself portrayed on Netflix by an actress without your permission,’ she said. 

‘I’m like, who will they choose? Dakota Fanning? Dakota Johnson? [But] who is this random Australian woman who looks nothing like me?’ 

‘It was a terrible job. All love to her, she just doesn’t look like me and she doesn’t act like me.’

Younger also stressed she did not own a private jet – but said she was now trying to ‘manifest’ one for herself.

The series traces Gibson’s rise to prominence as she builds a global wellness empire off the back of fraudulent claims she had beaten brain cancer through healthy eating.

In truth, the then-21 year old from Melbourne had never been diagnosed with the disease and her whole narrative was a sham.

Within a year, her Instagram account @healing_belle had millions of followers, many of them cancer sufferers, who would go on to subscribe to her app and buy her Whole Pantry cookbook.

Gibson consistently claimed her earnings, reportedly in excess of $1million, would be donated to various cancer charities, although it proved to be her downfall when account records exposed her lies.

Younger, who also promotes healing though healthy eating via her App and books, first came across Belle Gibson (pictured) on social media before the pair met up in America

In a key moment, Gibson – played by Kaitlyn Dever (right) – tells Younger’s character, played by Kate Lister (left): ‘If the story isn’t working for you any more, change the story’

‘The thing about Belle is she was super talented, she was creative, she was ahead of her time, she has an incredibly successful cookbook,’ Younger said.

‘Don’t get me wrong – what Belle did was dangerous, what she did was illegal, but holistic healing is not a dangerous thing.

‘It’s true my character was barely in it and thank God. It’s not a TV show or a story I want to be affiliated with.

‘The truth is this story has nothing to do with me and everything to do with Belle Gibson who was a con artist and a scammer.

‘But it is a hit piece on wellness, when what really it should have been portrayed as is a hit piece of Belle Gibson and her life.’