Dad whose wife and daughter inspired Apple Cider Vinegar storyline slams Netflix for ‘inaccurate’ portrayal of their deaths

When it comes to true crime, Netflix pretty much always hits the nail on the head.

But while their latest drama Apple Cider Vinegar has been a hit with viewers, a man whose wife and daughter inspired one of its storylines has slammed the show's portrayal of their deaths.

Based on a disturbing true story, the series follows Belle Gibson (played by Kaitlyn Dever), a woman who faked being terminally ill to become an online wellness guru.

Belle gained the sympathy and trust of thousands of people by sharing her struggles with brain cancer.

However, while she claimed to have been given just four months to live, the perfectly curated pictures she posted on social media suggested glowing health.

That's because the cancer didn't exist, and Gibson was scamming her hundreds of thousands of followers, making them believe that she'd cured the disease with a healthy lifestyle.

Apple Cider Vinegar character Milla Blake refused conventional cancer treatment is favour of a holistic approach (Netflix)

While Gibson's scam was Apple Cider Vinegar's main storyline, the show also featured Alycia Debnam-Carey as Milla Blake, a fellow wellness influencer who chose to forgo a lifesaving forearm amputation in favour of a clean diet and holistic medicine to treat her epithelioid sarcoma.

Although Milla Blake is not a real person, the character is based on Jessica Ainscough, an influencer who shared regular health updates on her blog The Wellness Warrior.

Like the series depicts, both Ainscough and her mother, who'd been diagnosed with breast cancer, refused conventional cancer treatment and both died from their untreated conditions less than two years apart.

However, Aincough's father has since slammed Netflix for the 'inaccurate' way the show depicted their deaths in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

While the series showed Milla dying when the cancer spread throughout her body, she actually passed away due to complications from radiation therapy in July 2015.

Meanwhile, his wife Sharyn received a late diagnosis and chose to focus on her quality of life rather than treating the cancer, succumbing to the disease in October 2013.

The father of Jessica Ainscough, who inspired the character, has since hit back at the show's 'inaccurate' portrayal of his daughter (Instagram/@jessainscough)

And, while Mr Ainscough said that Belle Gibson tried to 'insert' herself into his daughter's story in real life - even showing up at her funeral - he denied that the two women were ever friends.

The Netflix series, on the other hand, depicts the two women as close friends and rivals in the wellness space.

While Col has no intention of watching the series, which he described as 'insensitive and clearly profit-driven,' he's been made aware of how his family have been depicted.

He said: "They have chosen to create a dramatised story in which Jess and my family are inaccurately portrayed.

"Jess and Belle Gibson were never friends. Continually linking Jess’s name to Belle is appalling. Jess doesn’t deserve her legacy to be tarnished by this."

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