London - When pictures were released last week of 56-year-old Elle ‘The Body’ Macpherson draping herself sinuously over a tree in a bikini, she still looked every inch a supermodel.
A 6ft tall goddess with perfect bone structure and the body of a 20-something, Elle told Red magazine it was down to the pursuit of "wellness" rather than good genes.
However, the reality is that she is also a committed fan of Goopier-than-Goop treatments, which include an infrared home sauna and bubbling water on tap.
She prays to her salads and relaxes in her Miami ocean-front mansion, reclining on her half-million-dollar sofa.
EVEN ‘GOOPIER’ THAN GWYNNIE
You may think that Gwyneth Paltrow (who sells undercarriage steaming, jade eggs and candles that proclaim: "This smells like my vagina") is the queen of woo-woo wellness.
However, Elle is giving her a run for her money. The two are pals, Elle has said that she has known Gwyneth "since she was dating Brad Pitt" and was one of the names at the Goop Health summit in New York last year.
With a collection of health and wellness gurus who she interviews in a podcast and with her vitamin line, WelleCo, alongside the beauty treatments she plugs on Instagram, Elle seems to be going all out to be Goopier than Gwynnie.
Last week she has rhapsodised on Instagram over the benefits of a bubble machine - a "personal ozone device".
The Thera03 Bubbler claims to "sanitise all of your food sources by simply bubbling the low gamma O3 into your kitchen sink filled with tap water. Within minutes your tap water transforms into a sanitation station and can sterilise and disinfect all forms of unhealthy foreign bacteria, viruses, parasites the like".
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A post shared by Elle Macpherson(@ellemacphersonofficial) on Jun 17, 2020 at 6:55am PDT
Why would bubbled water be a disinfectant? Neither Elle nor the makers seem able to explain.
Plus she enjoyed a "detox" in a portable infrared sauna by the same manufacturer, posting pictures of herself while zipped inside the infrared sauna bag.
She has also had a "holistic sound acupuncture facial" from Goddess Lashes for $250 (about R4 200), and had a visit from a Brazilian beautician for a lymphatic drainage massage in search of the flattest possible stomach - the before and after pictures show that you can’t really improve on perfection.
Elsewhere on her social media she praises Dr Will Cole, a "Ketotarian" based in Pittsburgh. Dr Will is not a medical doctor but has a doctorate after studying nutrition. He is a fan of fecal microbiota treatment - a human waste transplant - which he claims can be useful to "balance the immune system" and in treating obesity.
He is also the author of a book, Eat Dirt, which aims to treat ‘inflammation’ via a highly restrictive vegetarian diet.
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A post shared by Elle Macpherson(@ellemacphersonofficial) on Jun 28, 2020 at 4:30pm PDT
COVER GIRL LOOKS? GOT IT COVERED!
Recent fashion cover shoots for Harper’s Bazaar and Red magazine show beyond any doubt that Elle has not spent the past three months sitting down with a bag of crisps and glass of wine.
The Harper’s Bazaar pictures were taken pre-lockdown but the interview was delivered during it. And she is full of the benefits of "wellness" saying: "Beauty and being well go hand in hand."
In Red magazine a delightful set of pictures of Elle frolicking mostly in swimwear were taken during lockdown in her garden in Miami. She tells the magazine that "inner vitality" is what people find attractive, which may be easier to assert when you’re a 6 ft goddess.
She added: "Genetics can only get you so far. By the time you reach 50, you realise it’s all about caring for your body and your levels of vitality, so you can do the things you want to do."
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A post shared by Elle Macpherson(@ellemacphersonofficial) on Jun 26, 2020 at 8:10pm PDT
GREEN IS THE ONLY COLOUR
Elle is the co-founder and creative director of the company WelleCo, which sells "alkalising" nutritional supplements.
She claims that the body works "optimally" when the pH of blood is slightly alkaline and carries a urine kit in her handbag so that she can check her pee at any time.
Her Super Elixir greens, described as "your daily alkalising greens supplement formulated by nutritional doctors using 45 premium wholefood ingredients for nourishment at cellular level" costs £62.50, fortified tea £48 and a box of immune boosting sachets £85.
Elle recently posted a picture of ice lollies made using the elixir powder. Her blend is made up of brown rice and pea protein which includes pomegranate, kelp, horsetail and turmeric.
Scientists tend to decry the fashion for "eating alkaline", saying that it is pointless and based on junk science. Cancer Research UK note that the pH balance of blood is tightly regulated by the kidneys and cannot be changed for any meaningful amount of time by what is eaten. All that can be changed is the acidity or otherwise of your urine.
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A post shared by Elle Macpherson(@ellemacphersonofficial) on Apr 7, 2020 at 2:08pm PDT
Her "Super booster" claims to aid the libido and Elle says on her Instagram that it "really works" but there is a caveat which runs: "If symptoms persist, talk to your health professional. Supplements may only be of assistance if dietary intake is inadequate."
THE VITAMINS WAR GETS UGLY
Her supplement empire, WelleCo, was hatched in a garage in Peppermint Grove in Perth, Australia, by Elle’s great friend Andrea Horwood.
Horwood gave Elle an initial 50 percent share in the "powdered green good" business in return for Elle promoting it.
Business prospered, with WelleCo becoming worth around £15-million, but the pair fell out and last year it emerged that Horwood was suing Elle’s private company Rolico, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands tax haven.Horwood said that Elle and her investors reneged on a deal to allow her to buy more of the company, then sacked her and locked her out of her own office.
The West Australian Supreme Court pushed the parties into mediation, putting them on notice they had two options: the company could be wound up or Horwood’s shareholding could be purchased.
A source said: "Elle was like an aunt to Andrea’s teenage daughters, she would give them beautiful lingerie and they adored her . . . they are deeply hurt by what has happened . . . they wanted to burn the lingerie when their mother was sacked." Elle recently said: "Business is a journey. Sometimes things fall together and sometimes they fall apart. Things evolve."