The Mother of all Cons is arguably the most shocking true crime documentary of 2026, telling the story of teenager Megan Bhari, who lied about having a brain tumour – only for her subsequent death in mysterious circumstances.
The three-part series zooms in on the Believe in Magic charity, launched by a teenager with a brain tumour. Or so she said. The charity for sick children was backed by celebrities such as One Direction, and even the UK PM David Cameron. However, suspicions began to grow about whether Megan was really ill, and what her mum and co-founder Jean O’Brien was actually doing with the money.
The truth, when it finally came out, was more shocking than anyone imagined. Megan did NOT have a brain tumour. So then how did she die just days after their scam was exposed?
Here’s everything you need to know about the dark truth behind Megan Bhari’s baffling death.
Did Megan Bhari have a brain tumour?
Megan Bhari and her mother Jean O’Brien started the children’s charity Believe in Magic on one premise – Megan had a brain tumour, and wanted to help others.
She carried a huge bag of bottles around with her, and regularly self-administered liquid morphine to “control the pain”. The fact that Megan “looked ill” and had “thinning hair” all helped convince others of her life-threatening illness. But she did not have a brain tumour. And had never had a brain tumour.
So this made Megan Bhari’s death in 2018 so unexpected. Just days after their sham charity was exposed, Megan actually died. But not of a brain tumour.
Megan Bhari, the founder of the Believe in Magic charity, died on March 28, 2018, at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at the age of 23.
How did she actually die?
A coroner’s inquest following Megan’s death revealed she did not have a brain tumour. It listed her official cause of death as acute cardiac arrhythmia due to fatty liver disease, a condition likely linked to a high body mass index. This is an extremely rare diagnosis for someone as young as 23.
So how did she get fatty liver disease? The most obvious answer is the amount of drugs she was on. An excess of drugs, including morphine, can seriously affect the liver’s ability to function. According to Rehabs UK: “Opioid use can lead to a sedentary lifestyle and therefore contributes to obesity, fatty liver disease and other metabolic disorders.”
At the time of her death, Megan was overweight. She was “addicted to morphine” and had been for several years. Her friends saw her “swigging it like coca cola”. Her mother Jean O’Brien had faked prescriptions after the NHS stopped administering it to them. At the end, Megan was on “more than three times what an adult is supposed to take”.
Megan took Oramorph, an liquid form of morphine, a Class A drug for severe pain. But the sick truth was that it was her morphine addiction, and withdrawal symptoms, that were causing her pain. Not a brain tumour. Megan’s symptoms were the cause of opioid addiction. The morphine most likely caused her death, although the coroner’s report did not state this.
Was Megan Bhari’s death ‘a result of abuse or neglect’?
In 2022, Kingston social services carried out a review into Megan Bhari’s case because it was suspected that her death was a result of abuse or neglect. They concluded that “despite there being no formal diagnosis, it was likely to have been FII (fabricated or induced illness) or Munchausen by Proxy”.
An author of the report later stated that Megan’s case was in the category of “serious situations involving a carer deliberately inducing signs of illness by really direct and deliberately harmful means”.
So we can conclude that Megan Bhari’s death was a result of her mother’s abuse and neglect. This leaves the worrying question of why her mum Jean Bhari has not been prosecuted.
There were no criminal charges. Nobody has been held accountable. This is clearly a case of Munchausen by proxy.
Is Jean O’Brien responsible for Megan Bhari’s death?
Jo Ashcroft, the whistleblower who exposed the dark truth behind Megan’s illness, says in the BBC documentary The Mother of all Cons : “I believe Megan would be here now if there was a way of getting her away from her mother.”
After her parents separated when she was very young, Megan lived with her mother Jean. But aged 13, Megan was diagnosed with Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension – a build-up of pressure on the brain.
A couple of years later, Jean told friends Megan had also been diagnosed with a brain tumour. She subsequently took a daily cocktail of drugs and attended frequent hospital visits.
Many directly blame Jean O’Brien for her daughter Megan’s death. Jean told Megan as a teenager that she had a brain tumour, and plied her with Class A drugs. These drugs eventually led to her death.
Was Megan the victim of Munchausen by proxy by mum Jean O’Brien?
The BBC documentary concludes that Megan Bhari was a victim of Munchausen by proxy, which is a fancy name for medical child abuse.
As a child, Megan was diagnosed with “intracranial hypertension”, otherwise known as “a build up of fluid in the brain”. However, there was another dark truth revealed by Megan’s half-sister Nina.
Thousands of medical records dug up revealed that Jean took Megan on “multiple visits to doctors and hospitals since the age of seven”. Complaints included creaky joints, headaches, sore throats, and so on.
Nina said: “Jean wanted the doctors to find something wrong with Meg. Jean wanted an accident. She wanted one of us to have an accident.”
Post-death investigations concluded that Megan Bhari was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Jean convinced her she needed powerful opiates. Without them, Megan was in pain – which convinced her she did have a brain tumour. But if course, it was the opioid withdrawal that was painful.
Records showed she had been taking high doses of liquid morphine, attempted to obtain false prescriptions, missed medical appointments, and changed doctors frequently.
Jean O’Brien ‘literally killed’ Megan Bhari
Viewers of the shocking BBC Two documentary The Mother of all Cons have expressed their outrage at Jean O’Brien being free, and believe she was responsible for her daughter Megan Bhari’s death.
One said: “Yes, she caused her daughter’s death. She forged oral morphine prescription!”
Another blasted: “Has the mother been jailed yet? If not, why not!”
A third wrote: “Absolutely shocked when I watched this. No one was charged!”
“The mother Jean O’Brien should have been prosecuted for years of child abuse,” said another. “She actually kept Meg as a child for her own gain, wicked woman.”
One went so far as to call Jean a murderer, saying: “The Mother of all Cons was disturbing and frustrating. Deffo think Jean murdered her.”
Another added: “The mother literally killed her. Why is she living it up in France?”
Read more: New documentaries and true crime on TV and streaming in June 2026
The Mother of all Cons is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.