And in another example of social media rumours having real world effects, mental health charity Beyond Blue says the drama is costing it donations.

It all started last Friday when The Herald Sun posted a story about Gillard, who was working as a "barrel girl" at a Women of Melbourne lunch and drew her own name for the raffle's major prize – a three month lease on a Mercedes-Benz C-Class Cabriolet C200, valued at $5,650. Money from the raffle was to be donated to Beyond Blue.

Gillard, the incoming head of Beyond Blue, offered to return her name and draw another one, but she was implored by the crowd to keep it, The Herald Sun reported.

“I’ve spent a lot of my life drawing ALP raffles where generally there wasn’t a prize and if you did happen to win the meat tray you had to give it back or you would have been torn limb from limb,” the former Labor leader was quoted saying in the story. “So, thank you very much.”



But a few paragraphs later, a statement from Gillard's spokesperson confirmed the former PM had already donated the prize back to Beyond Blue.

“Ms Gillard immediately suggested she redraw but the MC and crowd insisted Ms Gillard take the prize," the spokesperson said.

“That afternoon Ms Gillard asked the CEO of Beyond Blue to see if arrangements could be made with Mercedes for Beyond Blue to use the prize for further fundraising, for example as a raffle prize at a future Beyond Blue event.”

So that's that, right? What a cute lil' story about the former PM and a funny mishap at a charity event.

But then on Saturday, journalist Michael Smith published a blog post saying the incident revealed Gillard's true nature.