Elle Macpherson

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Elle Macpherson (born Eleanor Nancy Gow; March 29, 1964) is an Australian model, entrepreneur, and wellness advocate best known for her work as a supermodel throughout the 1980s and 1990s. She earned the nickname "The Body" — a moniker first applied by Time magazine in 1989 — after appearing on five covers of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue between 1986 and 1994, a record at the time. Since transitioning away from full-time modeling, she has built a significant career as a businesswoman, founding the wellness company WelleCo in 2014. She has maintained a residential and philanthropic presence in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributing to local real estate, cultural institutions, and community initiatives, though her Australian origins and global business interests have kept her work there largely out of the international spotlight.

Biography

Early Life and Career

Macpherson was born in Killara, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, and grew up in nearby Cronulla. She studied law briefly before being discovered by a modeling agency in the early 1980s. Her career accelerated rapidly after she relocated to New York, where she signed with Elite Model Management and began appearing in major advertising campaigns for brands including Gillette and Chanel.

Her first Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover came in 1986, and she returned to that cover in 1987, 1988, 1993, and 1994 — a feat that cemented her status as one of the most recognizable models of her generation. During this period she also developed a successful lingerie business, Elle Macpherson Intimates, launched in 1990 in partnership with the Bendon Group in Australia and New Zealand. The line expanded internationally and was credited with helping normalize the commercial market for women's lingerie in Australia at the time.

Her acting work included a role in the 1994 film Sirens alongside Hugh Grant and Sam Neill, and recurring appearances on the American television series Friends in 1998, where she played Janine Lacroix, Joey's roommate. She later appeared as a judge on Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model from 2010 to 2013.

WelleCo

In 2014, Macpherson co-founded WelleCo, a wellness and nutrition company based in Australia, with business partner Andrea Horwood Bux. The brand's flagship product, The Super Elixir, is a greens supplement marketed as a daily nutritional powder. WelleCo has since expanded its product range to include collagen supplements, sleep formulations, and plant-based protein powders, distributing internationally through its own website and selected retail partners.

Macpherson has spoken publicly about the brand's origins in her own experience with autoimmune health challenges, though she has also attracted scrutiny for promoting some wellness claims not substantiated by peer-reviewed evidence. WelleCo remains one of the more commercially visible wellness brands founded by a public figure, with reported sales in multiple international markets.

2024 and 2025 Bonds Campaign

In early 2025, Macpherson, at age 62, appeared in an unairbrushed lingerie campaign for the Australian brand Bonds, posing in the company's Bases Flex underwear line. The campaign was widely covered in international media, with outlets including the Daily Mail and Yahoo Entertainment noting that the images were not digitally retouched. Macpherson linked her physical condition publicly to her WelleCo regimen and lifestyle practices. In 2025, she celebrated her 63rd birthday by sharing photographs from a beach setting, which were reported by Parade magazine among other outlets.

Personal Life

Macpherson was married to French businessman Gilles Bensimon from 1986 to 1989. She later had two sons, Flynn (born 1998) and Cy (born 2003), with her partner Arpad Busson, a financier. The couple were engaged twice but did not marry. Macpherson has lived in various locations including New York, London, and Miami, and has maintained a property presence in the West Palm Beach area of Florida, though her primary residence has shifted over the years and was not publicly confirmed as of early 2025.

West Palm Beach

History

West Palm Beach was founded in 1894 as a planned residential community for workers supporting the resort town of Palm Beach across Lake Worth. Henry Flagler, the Standard Oil co-founder who extended the Florida East Coast Railway down the state's Atlantic coast, was instrumental in the city's early development; his railroad brought both construction workers and wealthy winter visitors to the region. By the mid-20th century, West Palm Beach had grown from a service town into a substantial urban center in its own right, with a distinct commercial and cultural identity separate from the exclusive enclave of Palm Beach.

Macpherson's connection to West Palm Beach dates to the early 2000s, when she began acquiring property in the area. Her investments were concentrated in the city's higher-end residential districts, where demand for waterfront and estate properties was already strong. Palm Beach County Property Appraiser records are publicly searchable and document ownership histories for properties in the area, though specific transaction details associated with Macpherson have not been independently verified in widely published reporting and should be confirmed through those records before citation.

Culture

West Palm Beach supports a range of cultural institutions that reflect both its history and its contemporary population. The Norton Museum of Art, founded in 1941 by industrialist Ralph Hubbard Norton and his wife Elizabeth Calhoun Norton, holds a permanent collection of more than 8,000 works and is one of the largest art museums in the southeastern United States. The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in 1992, serves as the primary venue for touring Broadway productions, symphony performances, and visiting dance companies in Palm Beach County.

Macpherson has been associated with charitable giving in the arts sector during her time in the West Palm Beach area, though documented specifics — named grants, dollar amounts, or named institutional partners — have not appeared in verifiable published reporting as of 2024. Any specific claims about her named contributions to local cultural organizations would require confirmation through the relevant institutions' public records or annual reports before inclusion here.

Economy

The economy of West Palm Beach is anchored by real estate, finance, tourism, and a growing technology sector. The city's proximity to Miami — roughly 70 miles to the south via Interstate 95 — combined with lower commercial rents and a less congested environment, has drawn financial firms and family offices northward over the past decade. The real estate market has seen sustained price appreciation across both the residential and commercial sectors, a trend accelerated by the population migration into Florida during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Macpherson's real estate holdings, to the extent they are in the West Palm Beach area, would place her among a broader cohort of high-net-worth individuals who have either relocated to or invested in the Palm Beach County market in recent years. The county's Property Appraiser maintains publicly accessible records for those seeking to document specific ownership claims.

Attractions

West Palm Beach offers a range of attractions that draw both residents and visitors. Worth Avenue in Palm Beach — accessible from West Palm Beach via the Royal Park Bridge — is one of the most recognized luxury shopping streets in the United States, lined with high-end retailers, galleries, and restaurants. The Breakers Palm Beach, a historic oceanfront hotel that first opened in 1896 and was rebuilt to its current Italian Renaissance design in 1926, remains one of the flagship resort properties in Florida. The Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society, located in Dreher Park in West Palm Beach, is home to more than 550 animals representing over 190 species.

The city's downtown core, centered on Clematis Street, supports a concentration of restaurants, bars, and live music venues. The annual SunFest music festival, held each spring along the downtown waterfront, is one of Florida's larger ticketed outdoor music events, drawing tens of thousands of attendees over a multi-day run.

Getting There

West Palm Beach is served by Palm Beach International Airport (PBI), which offers nonstop service to roughly 30 domestic destinations and select international routes. The airport is located approximately three miles west of downtown and is operated by Palm Beach County. Interstate 95 runs along the western edge of the city and connects it to Fort Lauderdale (approximately 45 miles south) and Miami (approximately 70 miles south). Florida's Turnpike provides an alternative north-south corridor.

Brightline, the privately operated intercity rail service, stops at West Palm Beach on its route connecting Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and Orlando. The West Palm Beach station is located in the downtown core near Okeechobee Boulevard. Local transit within the city is provided by Palm Tran, the Palm Beach County bus system, which operates more than 30 fixed routes across the county.

Neighborhoods

West Palm Beach proper is divided into a series of distinct neighborhoods, each with its own character. Northwood, one of the city's older residential districts, has undergone significant reinvestment over the past two decades and now hosts a concentration of art studios, independent galleries, and small restaurants along Northwood Road. The Flamingo Park Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, contains one of the largest concentrations of Mission Revival and Mediterranean Revival residential architecture in Florida.

The broader metro area extends into incorporated municipalities including Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach, and Lantana. Palm Beach Gardens is home to PGA National Resort, which hosts PGA Tour events and draws professional golfers and their support networks as part-time or permanent residents. Macpherson's reported property interests, where they exist in the county, place her within a community that includes a substantial number of athletes, entertainers, and finance professionals who maintain Florida residences partly for the state's tax climate.

Education

Palm Beach County Public Schools is the fifth-largest school district in Florida and the 11th-largest in the United States, serving more than 180,000 students across roughly 180 schools as of the 2023–24 school year. The district operates magnet programs in areas including the arts, engineering, and international baccalaureate studies at multiple campuses across West Palm Beach and surrounding communities.

Florida Atlantic University, with its main campus in Boca Raton approximately 20 miles south of West Palm Beach, maintains a presence in the county through satellite programming and community partnerships. Palm Beach State College, headquartered in Lake Worth Beach, offers associate degrees, bachelor's programs, and workforce training across several campuses in the county. Macpherson has been associated with philanthropic interest in educational access in the area, though specific documented contributions have not been confirmed in published reports as of 2024.

Demographics

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 decennial census, the city of West Palm Beach had a population of approximately 117,415 residents, with the broader Palm Beach County population exceeding 1.4 million. The city's population is diverse: approximately 34 percent of residents identified as Hispanic or Latino, 26 percent as non-Hispanic Black or African American, and 30 percent as non-Hispanic white in 2020 census figures. The city's median household income was approximately $52,000 as of the most recent census estimates, a figure that sits below the national median and reflects the broad economic range within the city's boundaries, even as Palm Beach County as a whole skews toward higher income levels due to the presence of Palm Beach and other affluent communities.

Macpherson's presence in the West Palm Beach area connects her to a city that is considerably more economically and ethnically varied than the exclusive enclave of Palm Beach across the lake. Her documented philanthropic and civic interests, where they touch on West Palm Beach rather than the broader region, exist within that varied urban context rather than solely within the luxury-residential sphere with which her name is most often associated.

See Also

• Palm Beach, Florida
• Norton Museum of Art
• WelleCo
• Palm Beach International Airport
• Brightline

References

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