Elle Macpherson writes about her alcohol addiction in her new book

Healthy, athletic, balanced: this was the image that made Elle Macpherson famous in the 80s. The Australian-born woman dropped out of law school to work as a model in the USA. Time magazine gave her the nickname “The Body” in 1989 after she had graced the cover of the swimwear issue of Sports Illustrated for several years in a row. The fact that not everything in the life of the now 60-year-old was always straightforward is revealed in her memoirs, which simply bear her first name: “Elle”. In the chapter “Recovery”, Macpherson writes about her alcohol addiction and her path out of addiction.

For a long time, she was unaware that she had a serious problem, said Macpherson on the Australian radio show “Carrie & Tommy”. “I was not neglected. I was a very well-organized, high-performing drinker who thought she had everything under control. For me, an alcoholic was always someone who lived on the streets and started drinking in the morning,” the 60-year-old recalled. It was only when friends in the health care system pointed out that her drinking behavior was worrying that she started to think about it.

Elle Macpherson put her children to bed – and then got drunk

Macpherson would drink vodka shots in the evenings after she had put her two sons to bed – sometimes she would pass out, sometimes she would vomit. “I thought that if I threw up, I would no longer have the alcohol in my system. How stupid is that?” said the model in the interview. She did not hide her behavior. “That was just the way my life worked. My children’s father lived in another country and was only home on weekends. I was at home with the children and that was what I did – until I didn’t anymore,” said Macpherson. From 1996 to 2005 she was in a relationship with the French businessman Arpad Busson. Her two sons Flynn and Cy come from this relationship.

Shortly before her 40th birthday, she pulled the ripcord and went to a rehab clinic in Arizona, where she spent several months. Later, she went to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, which she still attends today. No one there is interested in her as a supermodel, it’s just about her individual story. Elle Macpherson told the Australian magazine “Body + Soul” last year: “I stopped drinking in 2003 because I felt like I couldn’t be fully present in my life, and it was a wonderful springboard to getting to know myself on a deeper level.” Elle Macpherson has now been sober for 21 years.

Elle Macpherson was diagnosed with breast cancer

In addition to her alcohol addiction, Macpherson also addresses her breast cancer diagnosis, which she received in 2014, in her book. “It was a shock, it was unexpected, it was confusing and in many ways disheartening,” she told the Australian magazine “Women’s Weekly”. Macpherson consulted 32 different doctors and experts who recommended a mastectomy with radiation, chemotherapy, hormone treatment and subsequent reconstruction of her breast. But Macpherson refused and decided against conventional therapy. She chose a holistic approach that did not focus exclusively on the cancer, but on her health in general.

She retreated to a house in Arizona for eight months and was treated by a naturopathic specialist, an osteopath, a chiropractor and two therapists, among others. A decision that caused some incomprehension among her family. Her son Flynn, who was 19 at the time, “could not accept my decision at all,” Macpherson writes in her book. Her ex-partner Arpad Busson also disagreed. “Of course he was scared because I had decided against conventional pharmaceutical treatment. He thought that was extreme. I, on the other hand, found the path of chemotherapy and surgery extreme,” says Macpherson. Today, she claims, she is free of symptoms. “In the conventional sense, you would say that I am in clinical remission, but I would say that I am living in complete well-being. It’s not just about what the blood tests say, it’s about how you lead your life on all levels.”

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