The Rise of Believe in Magic
Bhari grew up in southwest England with her mother, who became her full-time caregiver after she developed a series of health problems during adolescence. According to Bhari and O’Brien, Bhari was diagnosed at age 13 with idiopathic intracranial hypertension, a condition caused by increased pressure around the brain. She began documenting treatments and frequent hospital appointments on a blog, where she connected with other teenagers living with chronic illnesses and built an online following.
In 2012, when Bhari was 16, she and O'Brien founded Believe in Magic after O'Brien publicly said her daughter's condition had worsened. The charity was dedicated to creating unforgettable experiences for children with serious or life-limiting illnesses, offering Disneyland vacations, celebrity meet and greets, shopping trips and other special events designed to provide families with moments of joy during difficult times.
The charity quickly attracted national attention. Volunteers donated their time, businesses contributed prizes and supporters organized fundraisers across the United Kingdom. Its growing profile also drew celebrity backing. One Direction became Believe in Magic's most prominent supporters; Harry Styles’ mother joined a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro in support of the charity, and Louis Tomlinson hosted a lavish Cinderella Ball at London's Natural History Museum. Additional supporters, including Michael Bublé, Jessie J, Olly Murs, Little Mix and Fearne Cotton, helped raise Believe in Magic's profile. David Cameron, then prime minister of the U.K., also praised Bhari's "extraordinary courage."
As the charity's reputation grew, so did the claims about Bhari's health. O'Brien told supporters her daughter was battling a brain tumor and a series of life-threatening complications that required repeated hospitalizations, specialist care and powerful medications. Bhari's illness became central to the charity's identity, inspiring thousands of people to donate and follow her story.
Doubts Begin to Surface About Believe in Magic
The charity's image began to unravel in 2015 after O'Brien announced that Bhari urgently needed specialist treatment in the United States. Supporters were told the treatment could save her life but would cost approximately £122,000 (about $185,000 at the time). The appeal generated an immediate response, reportedly reaching its fundraising target in less than 48 hours.
While most donors accepted the appeal without question, several parents of children with cancer found it unusual. They questioned why no treating physician or hospital had been publicly identified and why details about Bhari's condition appeared inconsistent with their own experiences. Quietly, they began comparing notes.
Among those raising concerns were Jo Ashcroft and Nick Bird, whose own children had battled cancer. Their investigation uncovered a growing list of discrepancies, including evidence suggesting that, while supporters believed Bhari was receiving emergency treatment in Florida, she and O'Brien had visited Walt Disney World. The vacation itself did not prove wrongdoing, but it prompted further questions about how donations were being spent and whether the medical emergency had been accurately represented.
The concerned parents eventually hired a private investigator and created an online group to collect information from families, supporters and former associates of the charity. As more evidence emerged, attention shifted beyond Bhari's illness to Believe in Magic's finances.
The Investigation into Believe in Magic
In 2017, after months of complaints from parents and former supporters, the Charity Commission for England and Wales opened a statutory inquiry into Believe in Magic, freezing the charity's bank account while investigators examined its finances and governance.
The commission found that trustees failed to oversee spending, keep adequate financial records or cooperate fully with investigators. It also identified large cash withdrawals and transfers into O'Brien's personal bank account that lacked supporting documentation. More than £100,000 (about $150,000 at that time) in charitable donations could not be properly accounted for.
The commission did not dispute that Believe in Magic helped many children, but regulators concluded that serious financial mismanagement and governance failures had undermined public trust. The charity was ultimately shut down in 2020.
Megan Bhari's Final Years
As scrutiny surrounding Believe in Magic intensified, Bhari and O'Brien largely disappeared from public view. Then, Bhari died on March 28, 2018, at the age of 23 from acute cardiac arrhythmia caused by fatty liver disease. During the coroner's inquest, however, doctors revealed a finding that fundamentally changed public understanding of the case: Her brain was "morphologically normal," with no evidence of the brain tumor supporters had believed she had been battling for years.
The inquest also heard evidence that clinicians had grown increasingly concerned about Bhari's medical care. She frequently changed hospitals and general practitioners, missed appointments and was taking unusually high doses of liquid morphine. Doctors testified that they were often unable to determine who was prescribing the medication, and evidence emerged that someone attempted to obtain morphine for her using a forged prescription.
Believe in Magic’s Troubling Legacy
Those findings prompted a broader review of Bhari's life and medical history. In 2022, an independent safeguarding review commissioned by a local government board responsible for protecting vulnerable adults examined the circumstances surrounding Bhari's life and death.
The review stopped short of making a formal diagnosis but concluded there were strong indicators consistent with Bhari possibly being the victim of fabricated or induced illness, formerly known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in which a caregiver falsely portrays someone as seriously ill or purposefully causes them to be that way.
The review acknowledged that the case was unusually complex because Bhari was an adult at the time of her death, and her behavior and actions seemed to confirm claims that she was seriously ill. However, investigators concluded those actions did not rule out the possibility that she had spent years believing she was genuinely ill after growing up in an environment where her illnesses may have been exaggerated or fabricated. In that sense, the review suggested Bhari may have been both the public face of Believe in Magic and one of its victims—a view shared by her half-sister, Nina, who has publicly said she believes O'Brien subjected Bhari to fabricated or induced illness.
O'Brien has consistently denied exaggerating or fabricating her daughter's illnesses or misusing charitable donations. She has maintained that Bhari suffered from a pituitary microadenoma (a non-cancerous brain tumor) and repeatedly insisted she devoted her life to caring for her daughter. No criminal charges have ever been brought against her.
More than a decade after Believe in Magic first captured the public's imagination, its legacy extends far beyond financial misconduct. The case raised difficult questions about charity oversight, medical safeguarding and the devastating consequences of fabricated illness. Whether Bhari knowingly participated in the deception or spent years believing the story that had been built around her remains one of the case's most enduring—and heartbreaking—mysteries.
