Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson is sharing new details about her decision to give up alcohol in her new book, Elle.
The 60-year-old, who gave up alcohol 20 years ago spoke with Network’s Carrie & Tommy and opened up about her sobriety journey.
“I couldn’t even identify it because being, Aussie drinking is part of our culture. I was not messy at all, I was very organised, in fact, I was a highly-functioning, controlled drinker,” she said on the radio program.
“It took other people – people in the health and wellness (community) – to say to me, ‘Elle, you are not living life on life’s terms, you are just numbing your feelings to get through the days’.
“I couldn’t really put two and two together because for me an alcoholic was someone that was living on the streets or drinking in the morning but what I found is any addiction – or anything that we do over and over again that is self-damaging – can be detrimental to us. We are continuing to do things that may be self-harming.”
In 2003, Macpherson wen to rehab and embarked on her sobriety journey. In 2023, she celebrated 20 years without alcohol and was awarded a tri-plate Alcoholics Anonymous medallion to commemorate her work in recovery.
Speaking on her experience with Alcoholics Anonymous, Macpherson told Carrie & Tommy she was “excited” to take what she learned and apply it to real life.
“I was suddenly feeling connected. AA is a wonderful community of connection, so sharing my story and feeling that I was in a group of people that understood was very uplifting,” she explained.
Macpherson’s new book Elle also revealed the Aussie supermodel had secretly battled breast cancer seven years ago.
“It was a shock, it was unexpected, it was confusing, it was daunting in so many ways,” she said of her diagnosis in an interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly. “And it really gave me an opportunity to dig deep in my inner sense to find a solution that worked for me…I realised 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.”
Explaining that her doctor suggested a mastectomy with radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, plus reconstruction of her breast, Elle shares in her new book that she deliberated for several weeks, seeking advice from 32 doctors and experts before choosing her own path to treatment.
Now in “clinical remission,” she admitted to AWW that her aim in telling her story was not to give advice, but rather to share inspiration and encouragement.
Elle by Elle Macpherson is on sale on September 3, 2024.
