Background

Elle Macpherson (née Eleanor Nancy Gow) was born on March 29, 1964, in Killara, New South Wales, Australia. She is the daughter of Peter Gow, an entrepreneur and sound engineer, and Frances Gow, a nurse. Peter and Frances divorced, when Elle was just ten years old. After that, Elle lived with her mother and two siblings. Frances Gow later remarried. Macpherson is Elle's stepfather's surname.

Education

Elle spent her early years in East Lindfield, Sydney's North Shore. She studied at Killara High School and obtained her Higher School Certificate in 1981. Later, Elle studied law at the University of Sydney for a year.

Career

Prior to her studies at the University of Sydney, Elle visited the United States to pursue modeling for a year so that she could purchase her law books with the earnings. She went to New York City, where she soon signed a contract with Click Model Management. It was in 1982, that she made her debut in modeling with a TV advertisement of the Coca-Cola Company manufactured diet cola soft drink Tab. The popular commercial gave her a "girl next door" image in her homeland.

The rest of the 1980s saw Elle featuring on prominent magazine covers, including New York, Australian and British Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Time and Elle, among others. The latter saw her featuring on many of its covers as also making appearances in all its issues for six consecutive years. Eventually, she emerged as one of the new generation of supermodels along with Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Pavlína Pořízková, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista.

As a result of her early success in modeling, Macpherson became the long-time face of French luxury skincare company Biotherm in 1985.

Elle's burgeoning modeling career further bolstered, when she was featured in the annual Swimsuit Issue of American Sports Illustrated magazine in 1986. She created a record of gracing the cover of Swimsuit Issue for five times in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1994, and 2006 respectively.

Macpherson's successful modeling career provided her with a great opportunity to walk the runway for imminent fashion houses, luxury retail companies and fashion designers, like Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Christian Dior and Donna Karan. She has also posed for several ace fashion photographers, like Bob Carlos Clarke, Steven Meisel, Ellen von Unwerth and Francesco Scavullo.

Basking with a flourishing modeling career, Macpherson endeavored into films, featuring as a model in the Woody Allen flick "Alice," an American romantic fantasy, released on December 25, 1990. She was featured nude in the 1994 hit film "Sirens," which created a furor among the media so much so, that her ex-boyfriends were also contacted for more of such pictures. She then went on to pose nude for Playboy in its May 1994 issue to come out with such pictures "on her own terms."

The ensuing years saw her working on many other films with big names of the industry. These included "If Lucy Fell" (1996) with Sarah Jessica Parker, "The Mirror Has Two Faces" (1996) with Barbra Streisand; and "Batman & Robin" (1997) with George Clooney. She also played main roles in "The Edge" (1997) with Anthony Hopkins; and "South Kensington" (2001) with Rupert Everett and Sienna Miller.

Her television pursuits include performing in the film "A Girl Thing" (2001); featuring in shows "Saturday Night Live" (1996) and "America's Next Top Model" (2008, 2016); in TV series "Friends" (1999-2000) and "The Beautiful Life: TBL" (2009); and hosting the shows "Britain & Ireland's Next Top Model" (2010-2013) and "Fashion Star" (2012-2013). She is also an executive producer of the latter.

Despite being a notable model and actress, Elle is also known for entrepreneurship. In 1990, she launched her lingerie collection "Elle Macpherson Intimates," partnering with Bendon Limited Apparel. With time, it garnered international success and emerged as the single top-selling lingerie line in Australia and Great Britain. Other business ventures of Macpherson include her own line of beauty products, "Elle Macpherson - The Body" and Elle Macpherson Inc.

It's also worth noting, that, the 2000 Summer Olympics closing ceremony featured her along with other Australian icons. She was also offered the post of an unofficial ambassador in the tourist commission of the Australian government. The following year, on May 11, 2001, Elle hosted the Miss Universe 2001 pageant, held in Puerto Rico, along with English model Naomi Campbell.

In March 2008, Elle was named Global Brand Ambassador of Revlon Cosmetics, following her three-year deal with the company. Since then, she has featured in several print and ad campaigns of the company. Over the years, she has featured on several other ads, including that of Victoria's Secret, H&M, Omega, Christian Dior, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Garuda Airlines, KFC, Chrysler, among others.

Achievements

• 

  Elle Macpherson is a well-known model, businesswoman, television host and actress. She earned the nickname "The Body" for her stunning height and athletic figure. Elle has over years succeeded as a supermodel and is best recognized for a record five cover features in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, starting from 1986. Working in both editorial and runway, Macpherson has walked the runways of Louis Vuitton, Azzedine Alaïa, Christian Dior, Thierry Mugler, and Valentino, to name a few. Macpherson graced the covers of several famous magazines, like British and Australian Vogue, New York, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Harper's Bazaar.
  
  However, while much of her work was on runways and magazine covers, Macpherson had a budding career in film and television, appearing in movies like Sirens, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Batman and Robin, The Edge, and South Kensington.
  
  In addition, Elle is known for her business acumen. She has established a number of business ventures and remained creative director and primary model of these, including a skincare line Elle Macpherson - The Body and world-famous lingerie line Elle Macpherson Intimates.
  
  During her career, Elle has received a number of awards, including the Style Icon Award, Everywoman Ambassador Award and World Career Award, among others.
  
  Moreover, in 1999, the twin islands of Antigua and Barbuda honored Macpherson by using her face on a series of postage stamps, making her the first model to appear on a legal tender.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • The Edge

    (An intellectual billionaire and two other men struggle to...)

    1997
  • The Mirror Has Two Faces

    (A shy, middle-aged professor enters into a romantic but n...)

    1996
  • If Lucy Fell

    (Two NYC roomies have a pact to jump off Brooklyn Bridge, ...)

    1996
  • Alice

    (A spoiled Manhattan housewife re-evaluates her life after...)

    1990
  • Sirens

    (When a painting is termed blasphemous, a young minister a...)

    1994
  • Batman & Robin

    (Batman and Robin try to keep their relationship together ...)

    1997
  • Jane Eyre

    (Jane Eyre is an orphan cast out as a young girl by her au...)

    1996

Religion

Elle Macpherson was probably raised as a Protestant, but converted to Catholicism as an adult. Now, however, she doesn't appear to be particularly religious.

Politics

Macpherson is a self-described socialist.

The model doesn't talk about politics all that much, but she's still got some opinions. When asked who she thought would win the 2012 presidential election in the United States, the model said she was pretty sure Obama would come out ahead. Then when asked if she liked him, she said: "Yeah, I'm living in London and I'm socialist. What do you expect?". She went on to say that she thought people like Obama because of his policies and not his image, but whether or not she thinks his policies are actually socialist remains a little unclear.

Views

Macpherson is an ambassador for RED, an initiative to raise money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. She is also an ambassador for UNICEF. In addition, Elle is a patron of the National Association for the Children of Alcoholics.

Quotations: "It's not vanity to feel you have a right to be beautiful. Women are taught to feel we're not good enough, that we must live up to someone else's standards. But my aim is to cherish myself as I am."

"I feel beautiful when I'm at peace with myself. When I'm serene, when I'm a good person, when I've been considerate of others."

"I used to wear heels because I wanted to show people I wasn't ashamed of being tall."

"I come from a country where you don't wear clothes most of the year. Nudity is the most natural state."

"If you're wearing lingerie that makes you feel glamorous, you're halfway thereto turning heads."

Personality

Besides English, Elle speaks French and can converse in Italian and Spanish.

Elle earned her nickname, The Body, thanks to her physique and bikini-clad shoots.

She always feels inspired by classic French girl chic.

Katharine Hepburn is her style icon.

Physical Characteristics: Elle is 182 cm (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in) tall. She has light brown hair and brown eyes.

Interests

• Cooking

• Sport & Clubs

  Hockey, volleyball

• Music & Bands

  Rap, classical music, jazz, country and western music, music of the 70s and 80s; Drake, Mozart and Bach

Connections

During the early 1980s, Elle was involved in a romantic relationship with Billy Joel, a musician. The model was the inspiration for some of his songs.

In 1984, Elle got acquainted with Gilles Bensimon, a fashion photographer, whom she would marry in May 1986. However, in 1989, the couple divorced.

It was in 1996, that Macpherson started dating Arpad Busson, a financier. Their relationships produced two sons, and Macpherson and Busson lived together in London until their separation in July 2005.

In early 2009, Elle began a relationship with Jeffrey Soffer, a hotel heir and billionaire. They parted their ways in March 2012 only to reconcile in November 2012. In March 2013, Soffer proposed to Macpherson, and they married in July 2013. However, in 2017, the couple announced, that they were getting a divorce.

According to some sources, in July 2018, the model was dating Andrew Wakefield, an ex-physician and anti-vax activist.

Father:

Peter Gow

Peter Gow is an entrepreneur, sound engineer and former president of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, a Sydney rugby league team.

Mother:

Frances Gow

Sister:

Mimi Macpherson

(born May 18, 1967)

Mimi Macpherson (née Miriam Frances Gow) is an Australian environmentalist, entrepreneur and celebrity.

Brother:

Brandon Macpherson

half-sister:

Elizabeth Macpherson

ex-partner:

Billy Joel

(born May 9, 1949)

Billy Joel, in full William Martin Joel, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and composer.

Ex-husband:

Gilles Bensimon

(born February 29, 1944)

Gilles Bensimon, in full Gilles Francis Charles Bensimon, is a French fashion photographer and the former International Creative Director of Elle magazine.

ex-partner:

Arpad Busson

(born January 27, 1963)

Arpad Busson is a French financier.

Son:

Arpad Flynn Alexander Busson

(born February 14, 1998)

Son:

Aurelius Cy Andrea Busson

(born February 4, 2003)

Ex-husband:

Jeffrey Soffer

Partner:

Andrew Wakefield

(born 1957)

Andrew Wakefield, in full Andrew Jeremy Wakefield, is a British former physician and academic, who was struck off the medical register due to his involvement in the Lancet MMR autism fraud, a 1998 study, that falsely claimed a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. He has subsequently become known for anti-vaccination activism.

Friend:

Jessica Simpson

(born July 10, 1980)

Jessica Simpson is an American singer, actress, fashion designer, and author.

colleague:

Linda Evangelista

(born May 10, 1965)

Linda Evangelista is a notable Canadian fashion model of Italian origin. She is known as one of the top supermodels of the 1990s. Linda has been featured on over 700 magazine covers. She also gained prominence as the face of the cosmetics company Revlon and the Versace fashion house.

colleague:

Christy Turlington

(born January 2, 1969)

Christy Turlington is an American model, charity founder and campaigner, and filmmaker.

colleague:

Naomi Campbell

(born May 22, 1970)

Naomi Campbell is a notable English model, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist. She became the first black woman to appear on the cover of French Vogue en route to iconic status in the modeling industry. In addition, Campbell has made a number of acting appearances in film and television.

colleague:

Cindy Crawford

(born February 20, 1966)

Cindy Crawford is a famous American fashion model and television personality. She first gained prominence in the 1980's and was among the first "supermodels." She is also known as an actress, businesswoman and philanthropist.

References

• Elle Macpherson's Instagram