Elle Macpherson defends cancer treatment path in heated interview
Elle Macpherson has defended her controversial approach to cancer treatment in a heated interview with Today show’s Karl Stefanovic.
The Australian supermodel, 60, sparked debate after it was revealed in her memoir, Elle: Life, Lessons, and Learning to Trust Yourself, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and green eggplant decided to take a ‘holistic’ treatment path.
Elle went against the advice of 32 doctors by refusing chemotherapy after undergoing a lumpectomy for HER2 positive oestrogen receptive intraductal carcinoma.
Appearing on the Channel Nine breakfast show on Monday, Elle appeared to get frustrated with Karl after she said the media attention surrounding her approach to cancer treatment was drawing attention away from other key points in her memoir.
‘The book isn’t about cancer. And the focus on it is really distorted,’ Elle told Karl and fill-in co-host Amelia Adams.
‘It’s distorting the rest of the gems that are in the book.’
‘I know, but you’ve found yourself in the middle of a debate that I think so many women are having with not just the community, but with the conventional medical profession,’ Karl interjected.
‘As you rightly point out there is a transition to more holistic, however that combination comes about, you’ve sparked the debate. And I think that’s a really good thing.’
Elle continued to defend her choice of treatment by assuring that the decision wasn’t made lightly.
Elle Macpherson (pictured) has defended her controversial approach to cancer treatment in a heated debate with Today show’s Karl Stefanovic
‘Just to be clear, I sought a lot of medical advice,’ she said.
‘It was very interesting, because every doctor has a different opinion on how to treat my specific case of breast cancer. There was no clear path and there was no guarantees either way.’
‘So, I just made a decision based on all the information that I gathered and what felt right for me,’ Elle continued.
The Today hosts went on to ask about Elle’s sobriety and alcoholism which caused the conversation to take an awkward turn.
‘At what point did you realise [alcoholism] was an issue for you?’ Amelia questioned, before asking how much the supermodel was drinking every night.
‘Everybody wants to know the juicy details! What is it with you guys?’ Elle replied.
Karl then attempted to settle the tension by stating they were only asking from their own experiences.
Appearing on the Channel Nine breakfast show on Monday, Elle appeared to get frustrated with Karl Stefanovic (left) after she said the media attention surrounding her approach to cancer treatment was drawing attention away from other key points in her memoir
‘We just wanna know because we drink!’ he said.
Elle’s prompted a wave of backlash from the public and health professionals after she revealed the unconventional treatment path she chose to battle cancer.
The model was diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago but revealed the diagnosis for the first time in her new memoir.
Addressing her breast cancer battle in a candid interview with 60 Minutes Australia on Sunday, Elle told Tracy Grimshaw she was in ‘shock’ when she got the diagnosis, but chose not to have the mastectomy and chemotherapy that her doctors suggested.
‘As you can imagine, it was a bit of a shock. I think any woman, most women, when they’re diagnosed, don’t think it will to happen to them,’ she said.
Elle underwent a lumpectomy, and learned her cancer had no clear margins — meaning it could have spread.
She said she was told to have a ‘mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation and hormone replacement’.
Elle continued to defend her choice of treatment by assuring that the decision wasn’t made lightly
Elle said she has always followed ‘natural medicine’ and said her choice was ‘unconventional’ like the ‘rest of her life’.
‘It was a choice of losing my breasts, or losing my life, that I was given. So it was not a vanity choice, let me put it that way. It was a natural route in my treatment from within,’ she said.
‘I had been really looking at the body in a holistic way — spiritual and physical well-being’.
Elle went against the advice of 32 doctors by refusing chemotherapy after undergoing a lumpectomy for HER2 positive oestrogen receptive intraductal carcinoma.
She underwent eight months of intense therapy with doctors in Phoenix, Arizona, taking a holistic route.
Elle (pictured) addressed her breast cancer battle in a candid interview with 60 Minutes Australia on Sunday
According to an unnamed Australian oncologist in the 60 Minutes report, because of Elle’s choice, she statistically has a 20 per cent chance of recurrence within 10 years.
Elle has reached the seven year mark and is still in remission.
The supermodel says there is a ‘time and place’ for Western medicine and she has ‘adopted a more natural lifestyle because that’s what works for me.’
‘Listen, I got a lot of advice. I spoke to 32 doctors along the way. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was a decision that I felt was right for me,’ she said.
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‘And I have come to the understanding that there are no right or wrong decisions or choices in how people choose to heal.
‘This was the decision that not only felt right for me but also worked for me.’
Elle went on to explain she does get regular medical check ups, including scans and blood tests.
She also said she is confident the cancer will not recur.
‘I don’t anticipate any and I have no indication that there would be. Zero,’ she said of her chances of the cancer coming back.
‘The body has the infinite capacity to heal and I am in utter wellness… Fear is something that can really make you ill. So I’m not interested in that.
‘I think it’s a wise way to live life, to focus on well-being.’
She has been met with a huge backlash and was branded ‘shockingly irresponsible’ by medics and fans.
Elle has been busy promoting her new memoir, titled Elle: Life, Lessons, and Learning to Trust Yourself, which was released in Australia on September 3 and will come out in the US on November 19.
In the candid release, Elle detailed her secret battle with breast cancer seven years ago for the very first time.
She detailed how she had a lumpectomy — a surgery to remove cancer from the breast while leaving most of the tissue in place — before doctors advised her to have a mastectomy with radiation, chemotherapy and hormone therapy.
Elle underwent a lumpectomy, and learned that cancer had no clear margins – meaning it could have spread. She said she was told to have a ‘mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation and hormone replacement’ but opted not to because of an ‘inner sense’
However, Elle decided to go against traditional medicine, saying 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’.
Speaking to Women’s Weekly about her diagnosis, she shared: ‘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.’
Elle — who was married to Jefferey Soffer at the time before divorcing four months later — said she meditated on a beach in Miami and concluded she didn’t want to treat her cancer with pharmaceuticals, but rather ‘an intuitive, heart-led, 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 explained, later adding she thought chemotherapy and surgery were too ‘extreme’.
The fashion icon said ‘people thought I was crazy’ but she forged ahead with a treatment plan that ‘resonated’ with her, ‘addressing emotional as well as physical factors associated with breast cancer’.
Elle ‘holistically treated’ her cancer at a house in Phoenix, which she rented for eight months, under the guidance of her primary doctor, a doctor of naturopathy, holistic dentist, osteopath, chiropractor and two therapists.
While staying in the house alone, Elle said she spent her days ‘focusing and devoting every single minute to healing myself’.
Elle is now in ‘clinical remission’, which she chooses to call ‘utter wellness’, but said her sons Flynn, 26, and Cy, 21, had mixed reactions about her unusual approach to the cancer diagnosis.
Her youngest son fully supported his famous mother because he believed chemotherapy was ‘a kiss of death’, but her eldest had his reservations.
Elle is now in ‘clinical remission’, which she chooses to call ‘utter wellness’, but said her sons Flynn, 26, and Cy, 21, had mixed reactions about her unusual approach to the diagnosis
‘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,’ Elle said.
Elle added her ex Arki Busson, who she split from in 2005 after welcoming their two sons, ‘didn’t agree’ with her methods but wrote a letter telling her how ‘proud’ he was of ‘the courage I was showing’.
Her comments have proved to be divisive, with one doctor slamming Elle for promoting ‘holistic’ treatment while many celebrities have also weighed in on the debate, including MAFS expert Mel Schilling, who is battling colon cancer.
Dr Liz O’Riordan, former Consultant Oncoplastic Surgeon at Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, discussed the dangers of alternative cancer therapies on ITV’s Lorraine, saying Elle likely didn’t understand the ‘ripple effect’ of her remarks.
She said: ‘I think it’s really hard to get my head around, we know that there is no evidence that alternative holistic treatments can cure cancer and it’s really hard when someone with her profile decides to do this.
‘My worry is that people will see her choice and not take treatments like chemotherapy and the problem is when women don’t choose mainstream treatment and just have alternative treatments they are six times more likely to die.’
Elle also said she is confident that the cancer will not recur. ‘The body has the infinite capacity to heal and I am in utter wellness… Fear is something that can really make you ill. So I’m not interested in that’ she said
Typical cancer treatment revolves around surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Cancer Research UK notes that some patients also use complementary therapies to feel better, ease the side effects of these treatments and improve quality of life.
Aromatherapy, acupuncture, herbal medicine, massage therapy, visualisation and yoga are among the most common examples, it said.
Meanwhile, alternative therapies including shark cartilage supplements and Gerson therapy — which involves following an organic vegetarian diet and undergoing up to five coffee enemas a day — have been used instead of medical treatment.
There is no scientific or medical evidence that these therapies can cure cancer.
Some might even be unsafe, trigger harmful side effects or interact with medical treatment, according to Cancer Research UK.
In February 2017, when Elle made the decision to undergo her more holistic treatment path, she was married to Jeffrey but they ultimately split after four years together in June of that year.
She went on to date disgraced former doctor and antivaxxer, Andrew Wakefield, who she met at a ‘Doctors Who Rock’ awards ceremony in Florida in November 2017.
Elle is believed to have split from Andrew — whose discredited research linking the MMR jab and autism made him a pariah — in 2020.
She publicly backed her boyfriend during the Covid outbreak, stating that the pandemic was a ‘divine time’ to promote the campaign against vaccinations.
In video footage obtained by the Mail, she was introduced by Andrew as ‘my girlfriend’ ahead of a US screening of his most recent instalment of anti-vaccination propaganda.
Talking to him before an audience in North Carolina, she said: ‘You made this film during Covid, and it’s interesting because it’s such beautiful, sacred timing when you watch the film, because it’s so pertinent and so relevant…
‘And for it to come in this divine time where vaccination and mandatory vaccination is on everybody’s lips.’
It was the first time the entrepreneur acknowledged their relationship in public and endorsed her partner’s activism.
