Health blogger Belle Gibson has denied that she was "trying to get away with anything" by lying about a brain cancer diagnosis, in an interview with Channel Nine's 60 Minutes.
"I didn't trade in my story, or in other people's lives," she told 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown.
In the interview, Ms Gibson admits that while she never had brain cancer, she was convinced that at one stage that she did.
She says an "immunologist and neurologist" she found online called Mark Johns, who practiced 'integrative medicine', did a series of tests on her in 2009.
Ms Gibson says he did the tests in her home. "It was a box, a machine with lights on the front and that machine was apparently German technology.
"There's two metal pads; one that goes below the chair and one that goes behind your back and then that measures what I remember to be frequencies.
"He said to me that I had a stage 4 brain tumour and that I had approximately 4 months to live."
According to 60 Minutes, no record of Mark Johns exists.
She says a claim made in her book, The Whole Pantry, that she had undergone radiotherapy and chemotherapy, was true, even though she realises now that this never happened.
"I believed that I was having radiotherapy," she says in the interview. "When he [Mark Johns] gave me medication, I was told that it was oral chemotherapy, and I believed it."
After claiming to be 23 earlier this year, Ms Gibson was unable to provide a clear answer about her age, saying she's "known" she has always been 26 but will have to "keep digging" to know her true age.
"I've always been raised as being currently a 26-year-old," she said. "I've lived knowing, as I've always known, that I'm 26."
"I believe that I'm 26 - I have two birth certificates and I've had my name changed four times. The identity crisis there is big, but that was my normal when I was growing up."
The interview has received both criticism and praise, with one issue of discussion ethics of paying Ms Gibson for an on-camera interview, after reports that she received $45,000 to appear on 60 Minutes.
However, this has not been confirmed by the Nine Network, who said in a statement; "It is Nine Network policy not to disclose whether any guests on any programs have or have not been paid for their involvement."
