Supermodel Elle Macpherson’s growing ties to the anti-vaxxer community

Presenting awards at an anti-vax event is a long way from the front cover of Sport Illustrated for the Aussie supermodel Elle Macpherson. But her ties to some of the biggest anti-vaxxers in the world are revealing a side to The Body we did not know.

Elle Macpherson is dating one of the most famous anti-vaxxers in the world and her ties to the movement are getting deeper.

At a black-tie gala held in Florida in 2017, the Australian supermodel was a “special guest” presenter.

The event, Doctors Who Rock, sounded innocent enough but the awards handed out by Elle “The Body” Macpherson were to the who’s who of the anti-vax world.

Vaxxed, the pseudoscientific, conspiratorial documentary wrongly linking autism with the measles mumps and rubella vaccine won “World Changer Mission Award”.

So too did its director, Andrew Wakefield, the former doctor struck off for scientific fraud after his notorious and now retracted 1998 paper linking the MMR vaccine to autism.

Elle Macpherson with Kelly Gallagher (right) and anti-vaxxer Del Bigtree at the Doctors Who Rock event in Florida in 2017.

Anti-vaxxer Del Bigtree, another co-producer, also won a gong and the Vaxxed bus won one too.

Osteopath Joseph Mercola, one of the original US anti-vaxxers, who has made millions selling supplements and is a key funder of the US-based anti-vaccine National Vaccine Information Centre, won the “Future of Medicine Award”.

There is a photograph of the Aussie supermodel and Andrew Wakefield holding each other closely at this event and it is here to two are thought to have debuted their now confirmed romantic union.

Doctors Who Rock was set up by Kelly Gallagher, who is also a co-producer of Vaxxed, but the group also specialises in one other thing — selling wellness supplements.

Wellness is now The Body’s business with her supplement brand WelleCo estimated to be worth over $21 million.

Elle and love interest Andrew Wakefield at the Doctors Who Rock event in 2017.

Elle recently liked a post on Pete Evans’ Instagram page proclaiming anti-vaxxers heroes.

The Miami-based model, 57, hosted the gala again in 2019 and was again a guest presenter but also won an award herself, the “Integrative Wellness Award”.

Nicole Rogerson, who runs Autism Awareness Australia and mother of an autistic son, said the debunked Wakefield link perpetuated due to influencers and wellness warriors.

“It’s such a shame. It is terribly irresponsible but their pseudoscience spreads like wildfire online which impacts on parents/carers and individuals with autism,” she said.

“I always say it’s best to get your health advice from a medical professional before you listen to a model or a chef.”

It was Elle’s blossoming relationship with Wakefield that contributed to a 2018 rift with her WelleCo co-founder Andrea Horwood, who is currently suing Elle in the West Australian Supreme Court, claiming she was “betrayed” after Elle allegedly reneged on a deal to allow her to buy more of the company.

Elle Macpherson was again guest of honour the Doctors Who Rock event in 2019.

The court documents also allege Ms Horwood was anxious that Ms Macpherson’s relationship with Wakefield would affect the company’s bottom line in the US and she did not want Ms Macpherson marketing the product.

“The recent publicity associated with Ms Macpherson’s association with Dr Andrew Wakefield was publicity that I considered was antithetical to the underlying marketing of WelleCo products,” the legal statement of claim says.

Ms Macpherson declined to comment on the claim. She is defending the claim.

Elle is still very much the face of WelleCo and her ties to the anti-vax ties are now getting stronger.

Elle with Kelly Gallagher, co-producer of Vaxxed at the Doctors who Rock event in 2019.

Last October she attended an anti-vax event hosted by Heal North Carolina with boyfriend Andrew Wakefield. No one was wearing masks, despite the raging virus.

Wakefield was launching his latest anti-vax film 1986, The Act and he introduced Elle as more than just his girlfriend.

“I want to introduce my girlfriend, Elle Macpherson. Elle was intimately involved in the making of this film,” he said.

Andrew Wakefield and girlfriend Elle at a live showing of 1986: The Act in October last year in North Carolina.

Ms Macpherson said it was actually a good thing the British General Medical Council stripped Wakefield of his medical registration — it found he had conducted scientific fraud, including secretly accepting the equivalent of $800,000 from lawyers preparing a case against the MMR vaccine — because it meant he could make his anti-vaccine films.

“I actually think they did you a huge favour, for all of us, they did us a huge favour as well because they exited you from a business that was not your calling. And I’ve watched you evolve and become a truly profound film maker,” she said.

Ms Macpherson described the making of the latest anti-vax film as divine timing as COVID raged.

“You made this film during COVID and it is such beautiful, sacred timing…..it is so pertinent and relevant and for it to come in this divine time where vaccination and mandatory vaccination is on everybody’s lips,” she said.

On Instagram Elle recently liked a Pete Evans post that called Wakefield, Bigtree and Robert F Kennedy Jr (who heads up anti-vax outfit Children’s Health Defence) heroes.

Her spokeswoman said: “We will politely decline this opportunity and provide no comment.”

BIG SHOTS: ANTI-VAXXERS EXPOSED, Sky News, premieres on Tuesday, February 23 , 8pm AEDT