Elle Macpherson reveals she used to do shots of vodka until she ‘passed out’ after putting her children to bed as she discusses secret battle with addiction

Elle Macpherson has opened up about her secret battle with alcohol addiction, revealing she used to drink heavily after putting her children to sleep. 

The supermodel, 60, who is now more than 20 years sober, unveiled her alcoholism in her memoir Life, Lessons, and Learning to Trust Yourself, which was released in Australia on Tuesday.

She also appeared on the Carrie & Tommy radio show to open up about doing shots of vodka until she ‘passed out’ while sons Flynn, now 26, and Cy, now 21, were in bed.

Host Carrie Bickmore opened the discussion with: ‘You talk about how you’d put the kids to bed and then do shots of vodka until you pretty much passed out. 

‘Did other people know you were doing that?’

‘No,’ Elle responded, to which Carrie, 43, pushed, asking how long the WelleCo founder kept her addiction ‘hidden’ for. 

‘I didn’t keep it hidden, it was just a function of my life,’ explained Elle, who also revealed she regularly attended Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) meetings.

‘The father of my children [Arpad Busson] was living in another country and he was only home on the weekends. I was at home with the kids and that’s what I did.’

The model, who was known as The Body in her heyday, went on to say she used to make herself vomit three times before bed to try to get rid of the alcohol in her body.  

‘I used to think if I throw up I wouldn’t have the alcohol in my system. How bonkers is that?’ Elle laughed.

She added that her battle with alcoholism and the obsessive vomiting after drinking stemmed from ‘trying to control the outside world so I would feel at peace inside’. 

It comes as Elle has been branded ‘shockingly irresponsible’ after she treated her breast cancer with a ‘heart-led holistic approach’, shunning the advice of 32 doctors.

Her memoir revealed she was secretly diagnosed with HER2 positive oestrogen receptive intraductal carcinoma – a type of breast cancer – seven years ago.

The supermodel, who is now more than 20 years sober, unveiled her alcoholism in her memoir Life, Lessons, and Learning to Trust Yourself, which was released in Australia on Tuesday. Pictured with Yann Gamblin in 1990

The disease was officially diagnosed after Elle underwent a lumpectomy, which is a treatment option that removes early-stage cancer from the breast.

Doctors suggested a mastectomy with radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, plus reconstruction of her breast to prevent the cancer from returning.

But Elle shunned the advice of experts and enlisted a group of holistic specialists to ‘address emotional [and] physical factors associated with breast cancer’.

The model rented a house in Phoenix, Arizona and spent eight months there, with regular visits from two therapists, a chiropractor, holistic dentist and a doctor.

She appeared on the Carrie & Tommy (pictured) radio show to open up about doing shots of vodka until she ‘passed out’ while sons Flynn, now 26, and Cy, now 21, were in bed

Other ‘alternative’ medics in Elle’s crew included discredited antivaxxer Dr Andrew Wakefield who she dated in 2017 around the time of her diagnosis.

The doctor was struck off in 2010 for an ‘irresponsible’ and fraudulent paper linking the MMR jab to autism.

Elle has now revealed to Women’s Weekly she is in clinical remission, meaning she has no signs or symptoms of cancer. 

The mother-of-two admitted her eldest son Flynn, who was 19 at the time of diagnosis, ‘wasn’t comfortable with my choice at all’.

‘The father of my children [Arpad Busson] was living in another country and he was only home on the weekends. I was at home with the kids and that’s what I did,’ Elle said. Pictured with sons Flynn and Cy in 2011

Fans have since blasted Elle for being ‘reckless’ while medics in the cancer field said she was promoting ‘dangerous’ therapies that could ‘cost women their lives’.

Taking to X, fans wrote: ‘This is shockingly irresponsible from Elle MacPherson. She was lucky that clearly the lumpectomy removed all the cancerous cells and it hadn’t spread, but implying she “cured” cancer holistically is reckless beyond belief.’

Another said: ‘Totally agree. I’m being treated for BC at the moment and I see people in oncology battling to stay alive I think Elle should be more mindful.’

A third added: ‘This is a worrying message. I’m not against holistic therapy and whatever gives you your best peace but if they hadn’t got all the cancer removed I’m not so sure about remission. Cancer is unique to each individual unfortunately.’