Elle Macpherson today revealed she secretly battled breast cancer but refused to undergo chemotherapy treatment.
Instead, the Aussie supermodel, 60, admitted she took a ‘heart-led, holistic approach’ to her illness — shunning the advice of 32 cancer doctors.
This unconventional ‘treatment’ is not recommended by the world’s leading cancer experts — some of whom have told MailOnline MacPherson is promoting ‘dangerous’ therapies that could ‘cost women their lives’.
But why would the mother-of-two want to opt out of the world’s most common cancer treatment, that has long been proven to save millions of lives?
Now, we can reveal the army of health gurus that Macpherson may have been influenced by — including a doctor who claims she cured her own cervical cancer using juice cleanses and a ‘detox’.
Instead, the Aussie supermodel, 60, admitted she she took a ‘heart-led, holistic approach’ to her illness — shunning the advice of 32 doctors. Pictured, Elle with Dr Sara Siso and ex-partner Andrew Wakefield
Another ‘good friend’, Dr Simoné Laubscher — a naturopath and vegan supplement business owner, also told Grazia in 2021 she had ‘successfully’ treated her own breast cancer
In 2023, the mum-of-two also revealed she had ‘learned so much’ from friend Dr Zach Bush (pictured) on microbiomes in the gut and how ‘it relates to health and disease’. The American doctor has also previously claimed there are links between gut health and autism and taking antibiotics heighten the risk of depression
Other ‘alternative’ medics in MacPherson’s crew included discredited antivaxxer Dr Andrew Wakefield, who was struck off in 2010 for an ‘irresponsible’ and fraudulent paper linking the MMR jab to autism — and who the model dated in 2017, around the time of her diagnosis.
Another of MacPherson’s medical aides, a former internal medicine doctor, has long warned against chemotherapy, describing it as a ‘business that is driven by the fear of death’.
Dr Zach Bush: Claims no cancer in history has been caused by not having chemo
In 2023, the mum-of-two revealed she had ‘learned so much’ from this doctor — her ‘friend’ Dr Zach Bush — on microbiomes in the gut and how ‘it relates to health and disease’.
She wrote on Get The Gloss that she was ‘rarely sick’ while growing up in Australia because the environment was ‘less toxic, no GMO or pesticides and the water was clean.’
She continued: ‘I’ve since learned so much from my friend Dr Zach Bush — a physician and internationally recognised educator and thought leader on the microbiome as it relates to health, disease and food systems — about the link between our soil and our wellbeing.
The American doctor has also previously claimed there are links between gut health and autism and taking antibiotics heighten the risk of depression.
Neither of these claims have been proven in high-quality review studies.
Dr Bush states on his website that: ‘there is no cancer in human history that occurred due to a lack of chemotherapy in that person.
‘We are not looking for a root cause in our therapies, how can they ever be successful.
‘Step one to overcoming cancer is to love those cells back into the community of your body.’
He adds: ‘Cancer is just the symptom.’
Dr Sara Siso: Vegan healer who ‘cured’ her own cervical cancer with a detox
Meanwhile, MacPherson has also admitted to having a close friendship with Dr Sara Siso, who describes herself as a ‘world famous plant-based healer’.
Writing on WelleCo, the wellness brand she owns, the model wrote: ‘My system also responds favourably to vegetable juicing, using recipes from my friend Dr Sara Siso, a holistic health practitioner, plant-based healer and raw food chef.’
On Dr Siso’s website, she claimed she ‘watched the doctors poison’ her sister Dina in 1997 ‘with chemotherapy, radiation and surgery’ after a stage four liver cancer diagnosis.
Months after her death, Siso herself diagnosed with stage two cervical cancer.
‘The doctor put me under tremendous fear and asked me to take immediate action,’ Dr Siso claimed.
‘After witnessing what my sister went through…I decided to refuse the conventional methods and cure myself in a natural way.
‘I thanked the doctor for my wake up call and left the office with a smile on my face, knowing deep inside that I could cure myself. I immediately started my detox program and within three weeks of cleansing I was cancer free.
‘The doctor called it a miracle. I call it the power of raw plant-based foods, “God’s Medicine”.’
Dr Simoné Laubscher: Business partner who also shunned chemo for breast cancer
Dr Simoné, who is originally from Sydney but living in the UK, has a PhD in nutrition and is a functional nutritionist, naturopath, wellness and longevity expert.
The 51-year-old is the formulator behind Elle Macpherson’s brand WelleCo’s beauty supplements.
She also told Grazia in 2021 she had ‘successfully’ treated her own breast cancer.
Dr Laubscher said: ‘I had a breast cancer lump four years ago, which I also successfully treated naturally with a better lifestyle and my Rejuv Wellness vegan supplements.’
Andrew Wakefield: Anti-vaxxer who was dating model at the time of her cancer
In 2021, Elle also revealed she had split from partner and British anti-vaxxer Andrew Wakefield following a two year relationship.
Since the late 1990s millions of children have missed out on the MMR jab because of now-debunked autism fears raised by the discredited medic.
Uptake of the MMR jab collapsed in the late 90s and early 2000s in the wake of Wakefield’s 1998 study published in The Lancet.
The study, based on the cases of 12 patients, proposed a link between the MMR jab and autism and bowel disease.
Elle has also admitted to having a close friendship with Dr Sara Siso, who describes herself as a ‘world famous plant based healer’
Writing on WelleCo, the wellness brand she owns, the model wrote: ‘My system also responds favourably to vegetable juicing, using recipes from my friend Dr Sara Siso, a holistic health practitioner, plant-based healer and raw food chef’
It was eventually proven wrong and retracted by The Lancet 12 years later in 2010 but not before harm could be done.
MMR uptake in England was about 91 per cent prior to Wakefield’s study being published but plummeted to 80 per cent in the aftermath.
He was struck off by the General Medical Council in 2010, which ruled he was ‘dishonest, irresponsible and showed callous disregard for the distress and pain’ of children.
Wakefield moved to the US and reinvented himself as a filmmaker and campaigner, and it was reported in 2020 that he had seized on paranoia owing to the Covid pandemic to spread conspiracy theories around vaccination.
Elle made her cancer admission today in an exclusive excerpt from her upcoming memoir that was published in the Australian Woman’s Weekly.
The model wrote that at age 53, she underwent a lumpectomy which confirmed she had a hormone-driven breast cancer.
The doctor recommended she undergo a mastectomy with radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and the reconstruction of her breast to treat it.
However, she decided against traditional medicine, as ‘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’.
The WelleCo founder added that she prayed and meditated on a beach in Miami, which led to her conclusion that 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 model, who was known as The Body in her heyday, also said ‘people thought I was crazy’.
But she forged ahead anyway with a treatment plan that ‘resonated’ with her, ‘addressing emotional as well as physical factors associated with breast cancer’.
She rented a house in Phoenix, Arizona for eight months where she ‘holistically treated’ her cancer under the guidance of her primary doctor, a doctor of naturopathy, holistic dentist, osteopath, chiropractor and two therapists.
Dr Laubscher said: ‘I had a breast cancer lump four years ago, which I also successfully treated naturally with a better lifestyle and my Rejuv Wellness vegan supplements’
Wakefield out and about with Macpherson in Miami. He moved to the US with his family when he lost his doctor’s licence in the UK
Staying in the house alone, Elle said she spent her days ‘focusing and devoting every single minute to healing myself’.
The model, who has publicly promoted holistic medicine in recent years also confirmed she is now in ‘clinical remission’ from the cancer.
‘In traditional terms, they’d say I’m in clinical remission, but I would say I’m in utter wellness. And I am!’ she wrote.
But experts today slammed the model for promoting the ‘dangerous’ treatment and warned women may follow her approach ‘costing them their lives’.
Liz O’Riordan, a retired breast surgeon and co-author of The Complete Guide To Breast Cancer, told MailOnline: ‘We now know that three in four women with breast cancer survive their disease for 10 years or more if they have all the treatment that’s offered.
‘We know that breast cancer can come back 10, 20, or even 30 years in the future, so Elle is still very early days.
‘Everything that mainstream doctors offer is based on years and years and hundreds of thousands of patients worth of data.
‘We know it works. We know it’s safe. We know what happens if it doesn’t work.
‘Elle has gone down the naturopathic holistic dentistry, chiropractor, alkaline diet and there is no evidence to show that any of this works.
‘Naturopathic medicine is based on folk medicine, and they believe that the body can heal itself with a supernatural vital energy that guides your body’s processes.
‘Holistic medicine means never having root canal surgery and having your fillings removed, but there is absolutely no proof to show that this causes cancer.
‘There is no medical science behind any of it to prove it can work.
The model, who has publicly promoted holistic medicine in recent years also confirmed she is now in ‘clinical remission’ from the cancer. Pictured, Elle Macpherson and Dr Simone Laubscher
‘However, when you are faced with a cancer diagnosis, it can be terrifying. And you want certainty. You want you want a cure. You want hope. And no one can give you that.
‘No mainstream doctor can tell you that they can definitely cure your breast cancer.’
She added: ‘My worry is that patients are seduced by clever marketing ploys and seductive testimonials that aren’t based on science, that aren’t based on data and we’re talking about people’s lives here.
‘The one thing going in Elle’s favour is that she isn’t overweight, and I’m assuming that she eats a healthy diet, and she exercises regularly.
‘All of those things can have an impact on reducing the risk of your cancer coming back, and she may be just one of the lucky ones.
‘These clinics also cost tens of thousands of pounds. She can afford to spend the money on these alternative treatments in the hope of the cure.
‘Other people are crowdfunding themselves and bankrupting themselves on the promise of a testimonial.
‘It breaks my heart that people are making money from vulnerable cancer patients who are scared.’
Meanwhile, Professor Karol Sikora, former chief of the World Health Organisation‘s cancer programme, told MailOnline: ‘I’ve had several patients that do this. You just can’t fight cancer this way.
‘It always ends badly — if all that stuff she’s doing actually worked it would be fully integrated into mainstream medicine.
‘Complementary medicine is great but only when used alongside conventional care.
‘There’s a risk that the cancer will grow and enlarge in the breast, spread to the lymph nodes under the armpit and then spread through the bloodstream to her liver and lungs.
‘That is the normal pattern for breast cancer.’
Professor Sikora, who has over 40 years’ experience, added: ‘Everybody is entitled to not accept treatment — that is a basic human right.
‘But for a modern icon like Elle to publicise her approach like this may well cause some women to follow her approach. That could cost them their lives and that’s a tragedy.
‘I’ve seen it all before with the rich and famous. Unfortunately disease like death is a great leveller.
‘Elle is embarking on a very dangerous journey indeed which she may well regret soon.’
Prof Stephen Duffy, an emeritus professor of cancer screening at Queen Mary University of London also said: ‘Individual patients must of course make their own decisions as regards treatment.
Checking your breasts should be part of your monthly routine so you notice any unusual changes. Simply rub and feel from top to bottom, in semi-circles and in a circular motion around your breast tissue to identify any abnormalities
Symptoms of breast cancer to look out for include lumps and swellings, dimpling of the skin, changes in colour, discharge and a rash or crusting around the nipple
‘However, it should be borne in mind that there are serious risks with refusing conventional treatment.
‘With such treatment, five-year survival from breast cancer is around 85 per cent. Research has shown in untreated breast cancer, five year survival was less than 20 per cent.’
Some patients use complementary therapies — separate to alternative 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.
But alternative therapies are typically used instead of medical treatment.
Some examples previously reported include shark cartilage supplements, laetrile (a plant substance) and Gerson therapy, which involves following an organic vegetarian diet and undergoing up to five coffee enemas a day.
There is no scientific or medical evidence that these therapies can cure cancer, according to Cancer Research UK.
Some might even be unsafe, trigger harmful side effects or interact with medical treatment.
One in seven women in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime — around 56,000 a year — making it the most common cancer in the UK.
The figure stands at roughly 300,000 annually in the US.
Between 85 to 90 per cent of women diagnosed with primary breast cancer survive more than five years.
However, secondary breast cancer — or stage four — which accounts for around 16 per cent of all breast cancers in the UK and US, is far more difficult to treat.
It means the cancer, that started in the breast has spread to another part of the body, commonly the liver, lungs, brain or bones.
The average five-year survival rate after the cancer has spread to the bones is roughly 40 per cent, and just 10 per cent if the disease ends up in the lungs.