IN REMISSION

Why Elle Macpherson Decided Against Chemo in Secret Cancer Battle

The Australian supermodel says she decided to reject conventional medical treatment after being diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago.

Elle Macpherson says she refused to undergo chemotherapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer and seeking advice from 32 doctors.

The Australian supermodel nicknamed “The Body” reveals in her new book that she even went against the wishes of some members of her family to take a holistic approach to her illness.

Macpherson, 60, says the diagnosis was seven years ago and she is now in clinical remission or, as she puts it, “utter wellness.”

She told Women’s Weekly in Australia that the day she was told she had HER2 positive oestrogen receptive intraductal carcinoma was Friday the 13th in 2017. Her doctors recommended a mastectomy with chemotherapy, radiation, hormone therapy, and breast reconstruction.

After seeking guidance from 32 doctors and experts, writes Women’s Weekly, Macpherson decided against conventional cancer treatment after praying and meditating on a beach in Miami.

She rejected the chemo treatment and decided instead to try “an intuitive, heart-led, holistic approach” under the care of an integrated healthcare physician. She didn’t explicitly say that she took no medication at all but put her recovery down to “a combination of therapies and lifestyle changes to treat and heal the whole person.”

Macpherson says she sought advice from Olivia Newton-John, who shared her experiences. According to the Daily Mail, she was dating notorious anti-vaxxer Andrew Wakefield at the time of her diagnosis.

The former supermodel has her own company selling expensive supplements containing powdered fruit and vegetables, which she describes as “elixirs.”

She told Women’s Weekly: “It was a shock, it was unexpected, it was confusing, it was daunting in so many ways, and it really gave me an opportunity to dig deep in my inner sense to find a solution that worked for me... I realized I was going to need my own truth, my belief system to support me through it. And that’s what I did. So, it was a wonderful exercise in being true to myself, trusting myself and trusting the nature of my body and the course of action that I had chosen.”

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In her memoir, Elle, she writes: “I came to the understanding that there was no sure thing and absolutely no guarantees. There was no ‘right’ way, just the right way for me. I chose an holistic approach. Saying no to standard medical solutions was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. But saying no to my own inner sense would have been even harder.”

She was under the care of a primary doctor, a naturopathic doctor, a holistic dentist, an osteopath, a chiropractor and two therapists, and spent eight months alone at a rented house in Phoenix, Arizona, focusing on getting well.

Her sons, Flynn, then 19, and Cy, then 14, reacted to their mother’s decision in different ways, she said. “Cy simply thought that chemo kills you,” she writes in her book, according to Women’s Weekly. “And so he never wanted me to do it because he thought that was a kiss of death. Flynn, being more conventional, wasn’t comfortable with my choice at all. He is my son, though, and would support me through anything and love me through my choices, even if he didn’t agree with them. My children were extremely supportive in their different ways but I knew they felt very scared.”

She said the boys’ father, her former partner, Arki Busson, didn’t agree with her decision but “was really supportive.”

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David GardnerChief National Correspondent

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