Supermodel Elle is dating disgraced MMR doctor – and his wife’s shocked
Wife supported him through controversy but didn’t know he was dating Elle
ELLE Macpherson is dating a disgraced British doctor who was struck off the medical register for claiming the MMR jab caused autism and bowel disease.
Over the past few months the Australian model has become close to Andrew Wakefield – whose false claims 20 years ago continue to be blamed for measles outbreaks.
The couple, who both live in America, were pictured kissing at a farmers’ market in Miami.
Mr Wakefield, 61, moved to Austin, Texas, with his wife Carmel and their four children after he was banned from practising medicine in the UK in 2010. His is understood to have first been seen in public with Miss Macpherson, 54, at an event in Orlando last November.
Mr Wakefield and his wife ‘ only split up a few months ago’ and are still legally married, according to Carmel’s brother Finbar O’Donovan.
Mr O’Donovan, 71, said his 61-year-old sister was one of Mr Wakefield’s ‘biggest supporters’ during the MMR scandal and felt ‘let down’ by how quickly he had moved on.
‘I had no idea that Andrew was seeing Elle Macpherson,’ he said. ‘My sister and Andrew only split up a few months ago.
‘They are not divorced yet, but they plan to. She called me this morning, saying, “Have you seen the photos of Andrew and Elle Macpherson kissing?”
‘She sounded shocked and said she was very surprised, but also seemed amused that her husband had found a new girlfriend who is a top model.’
Speaking from his home in Dronfield, Derbyshire, Mr O’Donovan added: ‘She feels let down because it would seem that they got together soon after she and Andrew split, which was only a few months ago. It is very soon after a marriage breakdown.
‘They had to move to America – his career was in ruins here – and my sister was always one of his biggest supporters.’
Mr Wakefield was spotted embracing Miss Macpherson while shopping for produce at an organic farm in Miami on Friday. Dressed in a light-blue shirt, the model seemed relaxed in his company and at one stage appeared to try to stop him from paying the bill.
It is not the first time they have been seen together in public. Miss Macpherson was spotted supporting Mr Wakefield at an event called Doctors Who Rock Awards in November last year.
Miss Macpherson, a keen advocate of healthy eating whose nick- name is The Body, divorced billionaire property developer Jeffrey Soffer last year. She was awarded £40million in cash and a £20million home as part of the settlement.
The model has two children – Flynn, 19, and Aurelius, 14 – from a previous relationship with financier Arpad Busson.
Mr Wakefield sparked worldwide alarm in 1998 when he published a research paper in The Lancet that linked the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine with autism and bowel disease. In four years, the UK vaccination rate fell from 90 per cent to 84 per cent. In 2010, the General Medical Council revoked Mr Wakefield’s medical licence after ruling his conduct was ‘dishonest and irresponsible’.
After moving with his family to a sprawling £ 1million whitebrick house on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, Mr Wakefield continued to peddle his anti-vaccination mantra.
He is paid thousands to appear as a guest speaker across the US and also directed a film called Vaxxed – in which he alleges that a link between vaccines and autism has been covered up by the US government. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, but banned from other festivals after being widely dismissed as scaremongering.
After its release, David Robert Grimes, a radiation biologist at the University of Oxford, said: ‘Wakefield is a long-debunked fear merchant whose attempt to paint himself as a Galileo-like figure is at once completely narcissistic and utterly dishonest.
‘We should never forget that he falsified data and engaged in unethical conflict to buttress a lie, and that this lie killed and maimed innocent people.’ Mr Wakefield’s views have been repeatedly backed by Donald Trump, whose anti-vaccine rhetoric was a common theme during his presidential campaign.
The US President publicly met Mr Wakefield in Florida on the campaign trail and even invited him to one of his inauguration balls 18 months ago.
Hollywood actor Robert De Niro, whose son is autistic, shares Mr Wakefield’s views and was a vocal supporter of his film.
Mr Wakefield could not be reached for a comment yesterday. Miss Macpherson declined to comment.
‘His lie killed innocent people’