Australian health influencer Belle Gibson has topped Google’s list of most-searched public figures in the country, after Netflix’s ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ series detailing her cancer hoax hit screens earlier this year.
Belle Gibson was the most-searched Australian public figure across 2025 according to Google’s Year in Search for 2025. That’s thanks in large part to the hit Netflix series about her cancer hoax, ‘Apple Cider Vinegar‘, which came out in February this year and quickly became a global hit.
Belle Gibson was also the fifth-most-overall-searched topic, behind Cyclone Alfred, the Australian federal election and Iran.
Here’s who else made the list.
2. Bianca Censori
Kanye West’s wife and the head of architecture at YEEZY, Bianca Censori was the second-most searched Aussie. Censori’s made a string of headlines this year for her outfits (which tend to be a little questionable), but in September this year, she announced she’s set to become a fashion founder and launch an eponymous label, BIANCA, in December.
3. Peter Dutton
Former federal opposition leader Peter Dutton came in at third for the most-searched public figures in Australia, with traffic up after he was forced to concede his 24-year hold on the Brisbane seat of Dickson after the 2025 Federal Election.
4. Adam Bandt
Former Greens leader Adam Bandt was the fourth-most-searched Australian public figure, after also losing his seat in Melbourne this year following a near-15-year stronghold.
He conceded it to Labor candidate Sarah Witty, after Australia’s federal election saw Labor win by a landslide. Bandt said the main reason for the loss was the preference votes for Liberal and One Nation.
5. Marty Sheargold
Marty Sheargold made headlines after saying he’d ‘rather hammer a nail through the head of [his] penis’ than watch the Matlidas play in the women’s Asian Cup. The former Triple M radio host lost his gig over the comments, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority found he was in breach of decency rules.
6. Sussan Ley
Sussan Ley became the leader of the opposition (and Australia’s first female leader of the opposition at that) after Dutton conceded his seat in the 2025 federal election.
7. Ange Postecoglou
Ange Postecoglou is an Australian soccer manager, that made headlines for becoming the first Australian to manage an English Premier League team (back in 2023, with Tottenham Hotspur). He was sacked by Tottenham in June this year after the team finished 17th in the Premier League (their worst finish since the 70s), but was later hired by Nottingham Forest in a contract worth reportedly 3 million pounds (and up to a million pounds in bonuses).
8. Beau Webster
Beau Webster has been in the spotlight in 2025 after debuting for the Australian national cricket team in January this year. In the Sydney test against India, he hit a half-century and then scored the winning runs to seal the series and reclaim the Border-Gavaskar trophy for Australia. He’s continued to have a strong season, posting a five-wicket haul in November for the Tasmania Tigers in the Sheffield Shield.
9. Izak Rankine
Adelaide Crows superstar Izak Rankine made headlines this year after copping a four-match suspension for using a homophobic slur towards a Collingwood player. He publicly apologised, but the remark still sparked widespread criticism from fans, advocates and commentators.
10. Adam Hunter
Adam Hunter, former West Coast Eagles player, was found dead in his hometown of Bunbury in February this year, at the age of 43. Tragically, after his family donated his brain to the Australian Sports Brain Bank, an examination revealed lesions consistent with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (a degenerative brain condition associated with repeated head injuries).
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