Elle Macpherson (pronounced /ˈɛl məkˈfɝːsən/; born 29 March 1963) is an Australian model, actress, and businesswoman. She is perhaps best known for her record five cover appearances for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue beginning in the 1980s. She is also known as the founder and primary model for a series of business ventures including Elle Macpherson Intimates, a lingerie line, and "The Body", a line of skin care products. According to Forbes, MacPherson possesses assets around 60 million pounds sterling.Early life:
Macpherson was born in the Cronulla neighborhood of Sydney, Australia, and she was the daughter of Peter Gow, a former president of a Sydney rugby league team, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. Her mother Frances worked as a nurse before she married. Elle reportedly grew up in Killara, a North Shore suburb of Sydney, and she attended the Killara High School. Elle is the eldest of four children including the activist and sometimes model, Mimi Macpherson. Macpherson’s parents divorced when she was 10 years old, and she was moved away with her mother and two siblings. Her mother later remarried, and a clerical mistake in registering at her new school meant that her name was changed from her father's, Gow, to her stepfather's, Macpherson.
Rise to fame:At the age of 17, planning to follow in her stepfather's footsteps, since he was an attorney. Elle enrolled to study the law at the Sydney University. Before beginning her college studies, Elle visited the United States with the intent of spending one year doing modeling work in order to earn money to pay for her college education. Macpherson traveled to New York City, where she initially signed up with the Click Model Management company. This became the beginning of a 25-year stay in modeling work.
Macpherson's modeling career began in 1982 with a television commercial for the "Tab" brand soda which established her as a something of a "girl next door" figure in Australia. By 1986, Time Magazine had already put her on the cover (with a feature entitled "The Big Elle"). By that time, she had also appeared on the covers of Elle magazine, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue magazine, and Playboy.
Already possessing some widespread name recognition, Macpherson cemented her high profile through frequent appearances in Elle magazine, where she appeared in every issue for six straight years. During that time she got married when she was 21 to the "Elle" Creative Director Gilles Bensimon.Eventually she gained even more exposure through Sports Illustrated magazine’s annual Swimsuit Issue. She appeared on the cover a record five times, in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1994, and 2006. Her popularity had reached such a level that Australian government offered her a position on its tourist commission as an unofficial ambassador.
Personal life:After briefly dating the singer–songwriter Billy Joel, Macpherson met Gilles Bensimon in 1982 on a photo-sesson for Elle magazine. This couple was married in 1985, but they got divorced in 1989.
Elle Macpherson has two sons with her former long-term boyfriend, the French financier Arpad Busson as their father, whom she never married. Her sons are Arpad Flynn Alexander Busson (born February 14, 1998), and Aurelius Cy Andrea Busson (born February 4, 2003). The two parents started their romantic relationship in 1995, they became engaged in August 2002, but they called off the wedding in July 2005.
Macpherson currently resides most of the time in the United Kingdom along with her two sons.
