She Was “The Body”: Supermodel Elle Macpherson Looks Incredible at 62

Born in Killara in 1964 as Eleanor Nancy Gow, Elle Macpherson grew up taking ballet lessons and began studying law in Sydney at the age of 18. While on vacation at the U.S. ski resort of Aspen, she was discovered by a modeling agency, prompting her to drop out of school after just one year. That chance discovery in the Rocky Mountains laid the foundation for one of the world’s most successful modeling careers.

In 1982, she made it onto the cover of the fashion magazine Elle—a fitting choice given her name. She remained the magazine’s cover girl for six years and became one of the most sought-after faces in the industry. The connection between her name and the magazine gave her a level of name recognition that hardly any other model achieved during that time.

Photos in the U.S. magazine Sports Illustrated brought Elle Macpherson international fame in 1986; she had married French photographer Gilles Bensimon shortly before. That same year, TIME magazine dedicated an article to her titled “The Big Elle,” thereby coining the nickname “The Body.” Her marriage to Bensimon lasted until 1989, but her reputation as one of the world’s most famous models endured.

Alongside Hugh Grant and Tara Fitzgerald, she made her film debut in 1994 with Sirens, for which she gained ten kilograms specifically for the role. That same year, she graced the pages of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue alongside Kathy Ireland and Rachel Hunter and posed nude for the May issue of a men’s magazine. In 1995, People magazine named her one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world.

Together with Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Claudia Schiffer, she opened the Fashion Café in New York City in 1996. At the same time, she expanded her filmography with roles in “Jane Eyre,” directed by Franco Zeffirelli, as well as in “If Lucy Fell” and “The Mirror Has Two Faces.” It was also during this time that she began her relationship with banker Arpad Busson, which later resulted in the birth of two sons.

The 1997 action film “Batman & Robin” brought Elle Macpherson in front of the camera alongside Hollywood greats such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, and Uma Thurman. That same year, she took on her biggest film role to date in “On the Edge.” This string of high-profile projects demonstrated that she had evolved from a model into a serious actress.

Elle Macpherson appeared in five episodes of “Friends” in 1999 and 2000 as Janine Lecroix, Joey’s roommate. A year earlier, her first son had been born in New York, and in 1999 she also became the first Australian celebrity to be featured on a postage stamp. Her second son was born in 2003, and that same year, according to her own account, she managed to break free from years of excessive alcohol consumption.

After years as the host of “Britain’s Next Top Model” starting in 2010, she married Jeffrey Soffer, the son of U.S. billionaire Donald Soffer, in July 2013. At the same time, she hosted the casting show “Fashion Star” from 2012 to 2013. Her marriage to Soffer lasted until their separation in 2017, after which she was in a relationship with British physician Andrew Wakefield from 2017 to 2019.

During the 2023 semifinals of “Germany’s Next Top Model,” Elle Macpherson sat alongside Heidi Klum as a guest judge and shared her decades of experience in the fashion industry. In 2026, she also appeared on the Spanish version of “The Masked Singer.”

Today, in 2026, the 62-year-old is still considered one of the most beautiful women in the world—she really does seem to have aged hardly at all. While her image has evolved over the decades since she was nicknamed “The Body,” her presence in fashion and the media remains as strong as ever.