Elle Macpherson’s family nightmare revealed
The supermodel’s dark family secrets are exposed as her ex goes to court
If Elle Macpherson thought she’d put the nasty separation from the father of her two children firmly behind her, she was sorely mistaken.
The sordid details of her bitter split from Arpad Busson, which she’d fought to keep private for the past 12 years, were revealed in a New York court last week, leaving the model reeling.
Elle, 52, is said to be devastated her sons Flynn, 18, and Cy, who will turn 14 this week, have been exposed to the issues that dogged her nine-year relationship with the 53-year-old French financier Arpad “Arki” Busson– which allegedly turned so ugly it led to her “wearing a wire” in case he made threats against her.
Elle and Arpad began dating in 1996 and separated in 2005. At the time of the break-up, rumours swirled that their relationship was plagued by drugs, alcohol and physical abuse as well as infidelity, which they both tried to hide to protect their sons.
But last week some of those unpleasant details were revealed in Manhattan Supreme Court, as part of Arpad’s custody battle with actress Uma Thurman, 46, over their four-year-old daughter Luna. The actress dated Elle’s ex on and off between 2007 and 2014, before their relationship also turned toxic.
During the increasingly ugly court case, Uma’s lawyer raised issues from the financier’s relationship with Elle, asking him about an addiction to prostitutes and threats he had made towards his former partner. It was even revealed Arpad had asked the supermodel to tell him everything Uma said to her about him.
“Uma has a lot of hostility against me and I worked very hard to establish the relationship with the mother of my two boys after a difficult time. I did not want her to poison the relationship,” Arpad admitted.
He added that though his split with Elle was hostile, “even in our difficult times, we managed to have shared decisionmaking with our kids”.
Today his relationship with Elle, who is now married to US billionaire Jeffrey Soffer, 48, is “very friendly”, he said, adding: “It wasn’t always the case. We had difficult times, especially when we had issues on relocation, but it’s [now] very amicable, very supportive, very friendly.”
Before Elle and Arpad split, her friends confided she was desperate to marry the multimillionaire, even converting to Catholicism to please him.
But it didn’t work. Their relationship eventually came to an end shortly after Elle’s very public stint in the Meadows rehab clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2003, which she said was for a “sort of post-natal depression”.
But friends of the supermodel claimed the real reason she’d sought help was for “self-worth issues” – a direct result of her turbulent relationship.
She was photographed amid a blazing row with Arpad near the clinic, where they exchanged angry words before she jumped out of his car and hurriedly walked away. Arpad began following her, imploring her to get back in.
“Whatever the problem was, there was a lot of tension and unhappiness about it,” a witness commented at the time.
Regardless of how messy his break-up with Elle was, Arpad is in an even uglier battle with Uma, who he became engaged to in
June 2008. They’d split by 2009, but reconciled soon after Luna was born in 2012, only to split for good two years later.
In court last week, Arpad’s lawyer asked the actress about the effects of her drinking and medication use, to which she replied, “It does not have any effect on my ability to function.” He also accused her of having a “serious mental illness”.
Uma responded by admitting she took prescription drugs for depression, anxiety and sleeping problems, and that she suffers from ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and a mild learning disorder, but maintained that she is nevertheless capable of caring for Luna.
Arpad challenged this, saying Uma had failed to tell him their daughter received stitches in her eye during a weekend she was left in the care of nannies.
“I am never told who’s taking care of Luna at any time, and I ask,” he said.
The former couple refused to look at one another during the hearing and are said by friends to “detest” each other. The same was said of Elle and Arpad at the time of their split – but friends say there’s little chance he and Uma will resolve their differences.
‘Even in difficult times we shared decision-making with our kids’