Elle Macpherson has revealed her secret cancer struggle seven years after being diagnosed and why she refused to undergo chemotherapy.

The Australian supermodel, 60, dedicated a chapter of her recently released titular memoir to her holistic approach during the shocking illness. 

She said she went against the advice of 32 doctors and experts to treat her breast cancer without the usual medical methods, reported Women’s Weekly. 

After receiving a lumpectomy seven years ago, the WelleCo founder was diagnosed with HER2 positive oestrogen receptive intraductal carcinoma. 

The doctor recommended Elle, who is known in recent years for her holistic approach to wellness, undergo a mastectomy with radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and the reconstruction of her breast to treat it. 

‘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 said of the diagnosis.

She added that turning away from the 32 doctors who recommended chemotherapy 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’.

Elle said she prayed and meditated on a beach in Miami to conclude she didn’t want to treat her cancer with pharmaceuticals, but rather ‘an intuitive, heart-led, holistic approach’. 

Elle Macpherson, 60, (pictured) has revealed her secret cancer struggle seven years after being diagnosed and why she refused to undergo chemotherapy

‘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, 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’. 

Elle said 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. 

Staying in the house alone, Elle said she spent her days ‘focusing and devoting every single minute to healing myself’. 

She said she went against the advice of 32 doctors, and the wishes of her family, to treat her breast cancer without the usual medical methods, reported Women’s Weekly on Monday. Pictured with her sons Flynn, 26, and Cy, 21

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While Elle is now in ‘clinical remission’, which she instead chooses to call ‘utter wellness’, she said her sons Flynn, 26, and Cy, 21, and former partner Arpad ‘Arki’ Busson 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.

‘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. 

As for Arki, who Elle separated from in 2005 after almost ten years together, the father of Flynn and Cy ‘didn’t agree’ with Elle’s methods but wrote a letter telling her how ‘proud’ he was of ‘the courage I was showing’. 

Elle said she prayed and meditated on a beach in Miami to come to the conclusion she didn’t want to treat her cancer with pharmaceuticals, but rather ‘an intuitive, heart-led, holistic approach’