Will anti-vaccine scandal doctor wed model Elle?
THE wife of controversial antivaccine doctor Andrew Wakefield has officially divorced him – paving the way for him to marry his supermodel girlfriend Elle ‘The Body’ Macpherson.
Carmel Wakefield, 62, filed for divorce in January last year, but The Mail on Sunday can reveal it has now been granted by a court in Austin, Texas.
The couple were married for 32 years before splitting in 2017, the same year in which Wakefield got together with the Australian model turned wellness guru.
Mrs Wakefield stood by her husband throughout his scandal-hit career, moving with him to the US in the early 2000s amid the fallout from his debunked research paper, in which he claimed a link between the MMR vaccination and autism in young children.
His claims contributed to a sharp fall in vaccination rates and a rise in cases of measles, mumps and rubella on both sides of the Atlantic. He was struck off by the General Medical Council in 2010.
The terms of the divorce including the division of their estate have been kept secret after the court sealed the file at Mrs Wakefield’s request.
A court official said only the couple and their lawyers can obtain copies, but confirmed the case is closed after t he divorce was granted. The judge signed an order to seal the case on August 10.
Asked for comment, Wakefield, 63, said: ‘No, thanks very much.’ He hung up when asked whether he would marry Ms Macpherson.
In 2017, Mrs Wakefield defended her husband in a documentary called The Pathological Optimist. Ms Macpherson split from her billionaire property developer husband Jeffrey Soffer that year.
Wakefield and the 56- year- old model were spotted kissing at a farmers’ market in Miami in 2018.
The news comes as Wakefield promotes conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic in the US, where he has a large following and is seen as a leader of the ‘anti-vaxx’ movement.
Mrs Wakefield could not be contacted and her lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.