Iconic ’90s model Elle Macpherson has been fighting cancer in the greatest secrecy. In an interview with Women’s Weekly magazine on Monday, September 2, 2024, the now 60-year-old star reflects on the “shock” of her diagnosis, but also on the very particular approach she has adopted to fight the disease.
She refused chemotherapy
“It was unexpected, it was confusing, it was intimidating in a lot of ways,” she tells the magazine. “And it really gave me an opportunity to dig deep into my inner sense of self to find a solution that worked for me.” Because, contrary to her medical team’s recommendations, Elle Macpherson steadfastly refused to follow standard treatments for breast cancer.
Although her doctors had recommended a mastectomy, combined with chemotherapy, hormone therapy and breast reconstruction, the model opted for “traditional medicine”. A practice that, according to the World Health Organization, “refers to health practices, methods, knowledge and beliefs that involve the use for medicinal purposes of plants, animal parts and minerals, spiritual therapies, techniques and manual exercises – separately or in combination – to treat, diagnose and prevent diseases or maintain health.”
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A choice that is hardly surprising since Elle Macpherson had already distinguished herself in the past by participating in an anti-vaccination campaign, led by her ex-partner, the controversial doctor Andrew Wakefield, who was among the researchers claiming that the MMR vaccine was responsible for autism, in research that was largely discredited.
Some members of his family did not agree.
Elle Macpherson says: “I realized that I was going to need my own truth, my own belief system to support me, and that’s exactly what I did. It was a wonderful exercise in being true to myself, trusting myself and the nature of who I was and the course of action that I had chosen.”
In her memoir, titled “Elle,” the model reveals that her sons have had very different reactions to her medical choices. “Cy (her youngest son, editor’s note) believes that chemotherapy kills, and he never wanted me to do it, because for him it was the kiss of death.”
On the other hand, her eldest son, Flynn, as well as her ex-partner Arpad Busson, described as “more conventional”, were “not at all comfortable” with Elle Macpherson’s choices. Which did not prevent her from maintaining the course she had chosen: “Sometimes, a genuine choice coming from the heart does not make sense to other people… but it does not have to. People thought I was crazy, but I knew I had to make a choice that really resonated with them.”
While saying no to her doctors wasn’t easy, Macpherson says, “Saying no to my own inner sense would have been even harder. … For me, it meant addressing the emotional and physical factors associated with breast cancer. It was a time for deep inner reflection. And that took courage.” She says she is now “in total wellness,” adding, “In traditional terms, you would say I’m in clinical remission.”
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