Screenshot of Belle Gibson's interview with "60 Minutes"
Screenshot of Belle Gibson's interview with "60 Minutes" 60 Minutes Australia

Apple is being dragged into the whole Belle Gibson mess. It has been learned that the multinational tech giant turned a blind eye to the disgraced Australian blogger’s scandal to allow Gibson’s The Whole Pantry app to run.

As The Age reports, Apple knew about Gibson’s impending scandal but still decided to go on with the app for the Apple Watch. The new book, “The Woman Who Fooled the World,” details the revelations of the blogger’s con.

Gibson claimed she was suffering from cancer but had been cured through healthy eating in 2013. She was eventually proved to be a fraud, with all the claims about her having cancer were false. Apple dropped The Whole Pantry app from all its platforms on March 17, 2015, following the exposure on Gibson’s con.

However, even before the news broke, Apple appeared to have known about the looming scandal. Private messages seen by Fairfax Media reveal that Apple staff were still supportive of Gibson even after the first news stories exposed her lies.

Apple was apparently ready to stand behind Gibson when an exposure from The Age revealed that she failed to hand over thousands of dollars she promised to charities and deleted social media posts questioning her miracle recovery. “[The] unfortunate article focused on highlighting startup entrepreneurial issues of competing and conflicting goals, dismissive of great work already done or to be done. Worst of all, it compromises the latter,” the message from an Apple staffer reads. “Spoke with Belle earlier and she is pragmatic about this unpleasantness and determined to take forward steps continuing in the work instead of drawing interest to this kind of blind-sightedness.”

The Australian also published comments from Gibson herself, in which she admitted that it could be she had been misdiagnosed. But again, Apple was staunch in their support.

Apple only severed ties with Gibson when the scandal broke on the eve of the Apple smart watch launch in 2015. The Whole Pantry would have been one of its central apps.

Apple’s director of communications Fiona Martin had no comment when asked by The Age. The company has repeatedly refused to comment on its connection to the now-disgraced alternative health advocate.

Penguin Australia, which publish “The Whole Pantry” book, was fined $30,000 for releasing the tome without fact-checking it. Gibson herself was fined $410,000 for misleading claims.