Apple Removes Featured Watch App 'The Whole Pantry' From App Store Amid Fraud Claims

Apple has removed the award-winning healthy eating app The Whole Pantry from the App Store and its featured Apple Watch apps page amid allegations that its creator Belle Gibson committed fraud, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. The report states that Gibson is accused of making false claims about her cancer diagnosis and failing to donate thousands of dollars collected during fundraisers to charities.

The Whole Pantry Removed

Apple has removed The Whole Pantry from its Apple Watch featured apps page

Apple had been promoting The Whole Pantry as a featured Apple Watch app on its website over the past week, although it has updated the page today to remove the listing. The app also appears to have been pulled from the App Store worldwide, based on spot checks of the United States, Australia, Canada and United Kingdom storefronts. The company has yet to comment on the matter.

The Whole Pantry Apple Watch

The Whole Pantry was featured on the Apple Watch apps page earlier this week

Gibson is a 26-year-old from Melbourne that rose to fame for healing herself from terminal brain cancer without conventional treatment, although the report claims that she later admitted to possibly being misdiagnosed. She has since been the subject of intense scrutiny from her supporters and those that donated to her cause, and has disabled the Facebook page for The Whole Pantry and her personal Instagram account.

Note: Due to the social issues regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 10
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
Apple TV 4K hero 221018 feature

Here is Everything New for the Apple TV in the tvOS 18.3 Update So Far

Tuesday December 17, 2024 6:25 am PST by
Apple on Monday seeded the first tvOS 18.3 beta to developers for testing. The update will likely be released in January. So far, there are only minor changes for the Apple TV, with one new feature and a few code changes discovered. Below, we outline what is new in tvOS 18.3 so far. Robot Vacuum Support in Home App First, tvOS 18.3 will add robot vacuum support to the Home app on the...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

mw360 Avatar
127 months ago
What has the healthy eating app got to do with other aspects of her life?
In the linked article:'She built her empire off the story of healing herself from terminal brain cancer without conventional treatment'

The app is the product of the business, and the business is the product of the alleged fraud.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FieldingMellish Avatar
127 months ago
Apparently the woman healed her wallet by non-traditional means.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
greytmom Avatar
127 months ago
What has the healthy eating app got to do with other aspects of her life?

It would be kind of like Apple allowing an investment advice app from Bernie Madoff to stay in the App Store.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iSee Avatar
127 months ago
...Gibson is a 26-year-old from Melbourne that rose to fame for healing herself from terminal brain cancer without conventional treatment

That should be everything you need to know about Gibson to understand what she is about.

It's a classic con, to offer the promise of something people want to believe so much that they're able to ignore that it doesn't make any sense.

Apple probably should have vetted this app better before featuring it, but I suppose they caught it before it really had a chance to be a problem.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe Rossignol Avatar
127 months ago
Why is this article considered political in nature?

Also, limited to 100 posts? I want to see comments on an article limited to those with 500 posts. Any way...
It is not exactly political, but it is a controversial social issue that we feel is best suited for this forum.

I have updated our disclaimer at the bottom of the article to better reflect this. Thanks.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HenryDJP Avatar
127 months ago
It appears Apple is acting on the basis of their private property walled garden to simply delete an app that brings shame on Apple.

This is interesting and a bit disturbing because it appears the journey this woman went through was not so much fraud as a changing set of circumstances caused by an initial mis-diagnosis, a series of treatments including holistic, and getting a later diagnosis of being clear. This is merely a case of mixed causation.

As for the donations, it appears that when she files her tax return this year and lists her donations, and her amended return from last year, she could correct that aspect of the case with the stroke of a pen. Literally. Boom. Case not fraudulent. Then she could be reinstated on the Apple Ap store.

While it does not surprise me Apple didn't wait for due process to respond, it also shows one of the weaknesses of a walled garden. The law and justice does not matter. PR does.

Rocketman
Post like this are saddening. Defending a lying deceptive woman and making Apple the bad guy. MR is no longer the Apple Enthusiast board it once was.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)