Elle Macpherson says: ‘I don’t think beauty is reserved just for youth. Women …

Born in Sydney, Macpherson had what she describes as an easy, simple
childhood. She swam every morning at 5.30am, played netball and lists
debating as one of her “greatest” school achievements. She was house
captain, had lots of friends and loved school. “I was a leader,” she
confirms.

Her parents, though, separated when she was 10 and she moved between her
father and mother. He was a sound engineer who started a shop in his garage
and expanded into a chain of stores; she was a nurse, among other things,
and was remarried to a lawyer.

Macpherson can trace herself through her “three” parents. “My stepfather
taught me commitment, discipline, respect for the world and for difference
of opinion. He taught me the importance of education. The things I learnt
through school have supported me all my life: methodical preparation; making
lists. If I put the work in, usually the by-product is a great result.”

Her mother taught her flexibility. “She went to where her heart was. Do what
you love, love what you do. And then my dad was really savvy and
entrepreneurial, he thought outside the box. He was a bit of a rebel and a
hard worker.”

After winning a place to study law at a Sydney university – which one she
can’t remember – Macpherson deferred and went to model in America. And that
was that. “I just never came home,” she says, and laughs. She launched a
career in fashion and was married to her first husband, a photographer, at
21. She adorned the much-coveted cover of Sports Illustrated a record five
times – hence “The Body” – and, in 1986, Time magazine put her on its cover.

But Macpherson wanted more. Rather than allowing magazines to make money out
of her image, she began to make calendars herself. “I thought, ‘Why am I
doing a calendar for Sports Illustrated? Everybody seems to like the
pictures, why don’t I just make my own?’” And so she did. In 1989, when a
small New Zealand company approached her, to help it break into the
Australian market, she cut herself in on the deal and created what would
become Elle Macpherson Intimates. “I made about £20,000 for the year. And
then we just grew and grew.”

Elle Macpherson at 50 is a very different woman to the supermodel in her
twenties. There was the party lifestyle for a start. “I have done it all.
I’m a girl from the Eighties – what do you think?! I went to Studio 54 and I
met Michael Jackson, Andy Warhol and Diana Ross, and I hung out in that
scene. It was very hedonistic and there was the rise of the supermodel and
the rise of Wall Street and it was very potent and intoxifying and
fast-paced and exciting. I was a part of that movement and really indulged
and enjoyed. And I was there 100 per cent.” Drugs and booze? She laughs.
“Not for the last 11 years.”

Today, Macpherson seems a devoted mother. She mentions her elder son’s
upcoming GCSEs three times, and clears her diary for cricket on Monday and
Wednesday afternoons. She is rigorously organised, although she doesn’t make
as many lists as she did. “I’m streamlining my life. Before it was like I
was in list fog. Couldn’t see the wood through the lists. But there’s a lot
to be said for making lists and the satisfaction of ticking them off.”

Each area of her life is carefully choreographed. “I like to get my nails done
because grooming is important to me, and I use my hands a lot. I get them
done maybe twice a month and I schedule my nail appointment the same way I
schedule a conference call. It has the same importance.”

Would she call herself a perfection-ist? “No. What is perfection? I’m
diligent, but some of the most exciting things in my life have come from
spontaneous mishaps… the beauty’s in the chaos.”

Is she difficult to work with? “Depends on the day,” she says, and laughs.
“I’m Australian so I’m super direct and sometimes that doesn’t go down so
well. I need to massage my tact a bit more and exercise a little bit more
humour…”

How, then, would she describe her sense of humour? “Blossoming?”

Surprises make her laugh. “When something takes us out of ourselves and
there’s that spontaneous letting-go that is so delightful.”

Macpherson used to host a lot of dinner parties – “both with partners and
alone” – but now she rarely socialises during the week. “The kids don’t go
to bed until 9pm or 10pm, and I don’t like to go out before they are in bed.
And that’s OK.”

She and her second husband, Arpad Busson, the multi-millionaire father of her
two sons, separated in 2005 after nine years of marriage, and last year she
married the billionaire Jeffrey Soffer. He lives in Florida and Macpherson
hopes to move there from London. “How cool that I got married when I was
49,” she reflects. “I have three beautiful stepchildren and two children,
and I married the man I love.”

Macpherson is today in Selfridges to promote an “alkalising” food supplement.
She helped develop it with a Harley Street nutritionist whom she met in her
late forties, when she wasn’t feeling her best. “I was getting jet-lagged,
my skin was really dry, I was not feeling motivated and I couldn’t sleep at
night. I started putting weight on around my waist, which was unusual for
me.”

Her supplement is, she says with no hint of irony, a “sort of a gift to other
people”. She now feels nourished on a “cellular level”, but concedes that
“healthy diet, exercise, love, lots of water, having a laugh,” are also
important.

I ask her how she keeps so fit. “Don’t obsess. Keep it simple. Have fun. Do
sport.” In England, she says, we are a little more limited. “We don’t have
mountains to climb, we can’t go skiing, I don’t do road biking here.”
Rather, she walks, runs and works-out at the gym. Whatever happens, she does
45 minutes of “something” a day. It could be acupuncture, stretch, yoga or
weights. “Or going for a walk in the park.”

The fashion industry has been kind to Macpherson, so I’m not surprised when
she sings its praises. “It has supported me for 30 years and I’m in a
business made by women for women. I find that incredibly supportive,
inspiring and profound to some extent, because there are so many people who
are employed in the fashion and beauty world and I feel that people are able
to use fashion as a way of expressing themselves.”

But when I ask about skinny models, she surprises me. “I think you’ve got
better questions than that one.” Really? “Yeah.” Why? “I think that’s just
one of those passé criticisms that don’t have a lot of merit or meaning.
Jockeys are very small. And? Football players are really big. And? You have
specialised body types for particular jobs.”

I cannot resist asking whether this unusual 50-year-old has had any work done.
During the interview I’ve found myself searching for signs of ageing. “On my
house?” she replies and laughs. “It’s not really my thing. Quite clearly.
Look at this face, it’s very natural.”

Is she happy? “Yes. Fulfilled. Inspired. Motivated.”

Before we part, I ask for her biggest quality and fault. There’s a long pause.
“I can’t think of a witty answer and it needs one.” She laughs again. “I
don’t want to be too earnest.”

The Super Elixir food supplement is available at welleco.com

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