Where’s Jessica Ainscough Now? What Really Happened to the Influencer Who Inspired Milla in Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple Cider Vinegar is Netflix‘s latest hit show that is based on a “true-ish story” about a real lie. Like anything that’s based on the lives of real people, lots of people are wondering what happened to the woman who inspired Milla Blake.
Apple Cider Vinegar is based on the Belle Gibson scandal, where the influencer lied about having cancer and donating the proceeds of her company to charity. Australian journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano wrote about the Gibson scandal for the Australian newspaper The Age and in the 2017 book The Woman Who Fooled the World.
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The limited series focuses on the friendship between Gibson and a fellow wellness influencer Milla Blake who is based on real-life wellness influencer Jessica Ainscough. Ainscough was diagnosed with cancer in the late 2000s, and unlike Gibson, had a real disease that affected her life.
Where is Jessica Ainscough now?
Jessica Ainscough died on February 26, 2015 on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She was surrounded by loved ones, according to her obituary in The Courier Mail. The newspaper reported that the final evening of her life she was giggling with friends full of love, positivity and shining those sparkly blue eyes.
She was diagnosed with with epithelioid sarcoma in 2008, a rare soft-tissue cancer that affects young adults and most often first develops in the hand or arm. Doctors suggested an arm amputation which would increase her that chance of 10-year survival. She tried chemotherapy, but it stopped working for her.
Jessica Ainscough sought alternative treatments such as Gerson Therapy, which involves a diet “based on the theory that it addresses the cause of cancer by detoxifying the body and stimulating metabolism so that the body can heal itself,” per Sloan Kettering. She claimed that it worked for the majority of the time. Her mother, Sharyn also advocated Gerson therapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. She died in 2013.
However, in the months leading up to her death, Jessica wrote about how the treatments weren’t working for her anymore. “For the first time in my almost seven year journey with cancer, this year I’ve been really unwell,” Ainscough wrote in her blog the Wellness Warrior.
“I’ve lived with cancer since 2008 and for most of those years my condition was totally stable. When my mum became really ill, my cancer started to become aggressive again. After she died, things really started flaring up,” she continued. “For the past few months, I’ve been pretty much bedridden.”
Gibson didn’t really know Ainscough and showed up to Ainscough’s funeral uninvited and made a scene with over-the-top crying and wailing, per Women’s Weekly.
