Belle Gibson, the Whole Pantry health blogger who claimed she healed her brain cancer with nothing more than a clean diet, has now admitted that she lied and was never actually diagnosed with cancer. It’s unclear why the 23-year-old fabricated such an elaborate story, but experts believe she may actually have a mental health condition known as Munchausen syndrome, or a factitious disorder in which sufferers feign physical or mental illness in an attempt to gain attention.

Gibson became an international sensation after she claimed to have cured her terminal brain cancer by following her “Whole Pantry” diet. The entrepreneur made thousands through sales of her Whole Pantry smart phone app, and the Whole Pantry cookbook was set to be released in the U.S. and UK next month, BuzzFeed reported. She was even nominated as one of Cosmopolitan’s Fun Fierce Females of 2014 in the social media category.

Beginning of The End

Gibson promised that she would donate a portion of the proceeds from her sales to various Australian charities, but according to Cosmopolitan, the charities reported that not only had they not received a single penny from Gibson, but they had also not been contacted by her. Gibson’s company explained that this was due to “cash-flow issues,” which can be quite common in new start-ups, but the discrepancy caused journalists to take a closer look at the young blogger.

It did not take long for the media to realize that Gibson’s various health claims, ranging from brain cancer to suffering from a stroke at age 20, had absolutely no medical backing. It appeared that Gibson had even lied about her age, which she claimed to be 26, but all official records listed as 23.

This week Gibson came clean about her web of lies, admitting that she did make up all of her illnesses and miraculous recoveries.

“None of it’s true. I don’t want forgiveness,” Gibson said in Australian Women’s Weekly. “I just think [speaking out] was the responsible thing to do. Above anything, I would like people to say, ‘OK, she’s human.”

According to the interviewer, whenever Gibson was challenged over the course of the interview, she cried and muddled her words.

Weekly speculated that Gibson may have Munchausen syndrome, a rare mental illness affecting only around one percent of the general population. According to the Cleveland Clinic, individuals with this condition have an inner need to be seen as ill or injured and are not driven by financial gain.

Friends and family have come forward explaining that Gibson has been making up illnesses since she was a teenager and during high school allegedly made up a new illness for herself on a near daily basis. Fairfax Media reported that a few friends even held an intervention for Gibson last year to address her obsession with creating false health problems.

Gibson, who has a 4-year-old son, admitted she believes her troubled childhood may have been the catalyst for her lying habit but also admitted that she sometimes has trouble discerning reality from her own illusions. She has gone into hiding since the news of her lies were made public.

Following the admission, Apple pulled Gibson’s app from the app store and Gibson deleted a number of her social media and blog posts.