Elle Macpherson Recalls 'Traumatic' Moment She Set Her Wedding Dress on Fire: 'I Think About It All the Time'

Mar. 15, 2025

Elle Macpherson.Photo:Sam Tabone/WireImage

Sam Tabone/WireImage

Elle Macpherson’s first divorce had an unusual casualty — her wedding gown.

While appearing on podcastFitzy and Wippa with Kate Ritchieon Monday, Sept. 2, the hosts inquired about the dress burning incident she describes in her newly released memoir,Elle— and the Australian supermodel, 60, revealed that it still plagues her thoughts today.

The model said that the moment came back to haunt her when the late couturier’s museum asked for the gown — which she wore to tie the knot with her first husband, French fashion photographer Gilles Bensimon, in 1986 — and she had to turn them down.

Elle Macpherson and Gilles Bensimon.Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty

“The embarrassing thing was many years later, the Azzedine museum asked me for the dress and I couldn’t tell them it was stuck to the bar on the brownstone that I was living on Ninth Street New York City, like only nylon would stick to a bar,” Macpherson told the hosts.

And no fire trucks were summoned to save the dress, the supermodel revealed.

“They didn’t have smoke alarms like that, that were that sensitive, at that time,” she said, adding that “the fire hazards were different in the ‘80s and ‘90s.”

Reflecting on the painful moment, which seemingly came after the former couple’s split — they divorced in 1989 — the supermodel said, “I just think it’s a wonderful indication of how frustrated and angry and desperate I felt and so, you know, so in your face to freaking burn your wedding dress.”

Elle Macpherson in 1998.Daniel SIMON/Gamma-Rapho/Getty

Daniel SIMON/Gamma-Rapho/Getty

“But the remarkable thing is, I got through it, and I thrived,” she continued. “And it was this turning point in my life, in freedom of expressing myself in different ways."

“Even though at the moment it felt very traumatic and dramatic, it actually turned out to be an extraordinary turning point and freedom,” she added.

That being said, she still mourns the gown, the model admitted.

“I think about it all the time, like, ‘What was I thinking?’ But it seemed like a good idea at the time,” she told the hosts. “I’m sure there’s lots of women that can relate to that.”

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Elle McPherson with ex-husband Jeffrey Soffer.John Parra/Getty

John Parra/Getty

After her divorce from Bensimon, Macpherson dated Arpad Busson, with whom she shares two sons,Arpad Flynn Busson, 26, andAurelius Cy Busson, 21.

In 2020, she reunited with Bensimon, who was previously the international creative director ofElle, toappear on the cover of the magazine with both of her sons. Bensimon photographed the cover.

As for Macpherson’s current love life? The supermodel, who was also married to businessman Jeffrey Soffer from 2013 to 2017, teased onFitzy and Wippa with Kate Ritchiethat she is currently “loving life.”

But, she added, she is also “in a loving relationship with a remarkable musician.”

source: people.com