Australian brand Bond, which last year enjoyed success beyond its wildest dreams with Robert Irwin, has signed another surprise name to model its undies.

Fashion icon Elle MacPherson – sometimes better recognised as “The Body” – is the brand’s latest recruit.

At the age of 61, the one-time supermodel and mother of two is the face of Bonds’ new Bases Flex underwear campaign.

“My inner flex is doing what feels right for me,” Macpherson said in a media release for the new range.

“That cheeky, give-it-a-go Aussie attitude has been part of my career and life journey from the start, so flexing in my knickers for this Bonds campaign really resonated with me.”

In 2025, Bonds famously teamed up with Irwin, the rising star son of Crocodile Hunter Steve, posing in nothing but his smalls while cradling pythons and other reptiles.

“Say g’day to our new brand icon, Robert Irwin, like you’ve never seen him before,” it wrote to launch the campaign.

“Who better to rep comfy down under than the Aussie wildlife legend himself?”

Macpherson, who had a glittering career as a supermodel from the 1980s, followed by a 25-year association with another underwear brand, Bendon, needed no such adornments.

Bonds’ campaign shows her in the new range, photographed against a simple white background.

“I had my own lingerie line, Elle MacPherson Intimates, for 25 years and when this opportunity came up and I realised our values were so aligned, which was celebrating individuality, celebrating natural beauty, celebrating confidence and the permission to be you, I just felt it was a really strong message that I wanted to support,” she said.

Macpherson also founded Welle Co, a beauty and supplements brand. In fact, last year the Australian Financial Review estimated her net worth at $157 million, putting her just shy of making its annual rich women’s list.

Nor is she any stranger to controversy, after revealing in 2024 that she shrugged off doctors’ advice to forge her own treatment path in a breast cancer battle.

MacPherson was diagnosed after having a lumpectomy at age 53. Her doctor suggested a mastectomy with radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, plus a breast reconstruction.

“It was a shock, it was unexpected, it was confusing, it was daunting in so many ways,” she told the Australian Women’s Weekly in 2024.

“It really gave me an opportunity to dig deep in my inner sense to find a solution that worked for me.

“It was a wonderful exercise in being true to myself, trusting myself and trusting the nature of my body and the course of action that I had chosen.”

MacPherson instead opted for “an intuitive, heart-led, holistic approach” to treat her cancer that used a “combination of therapies and lifestyle changes to treat and heal the whole person”.

“People thought I was crazy but I knew I had to make a choice that truly resonated with me,” she said.

“To me, that meant addressing emotional as well as physical factors associated with breast cancer.

“It was time for deep, inner reflection. And that took courage.”

Macpherson, who shares two sons, Flynn, 28, and Cy, 23, with former partner, Arpad Busson, revealed her decision caused some tension at home.

“Cy simply thought that chemo kills you. And so he never wanted me to do it because he thought that was a kiss of death,” she said.

“Flynn, being more conventional, wasn’t comfortable with my choice at all. He is my son, though, and would support me through anything and love me through my choices, even if he didn’t agree with them.”

Later in 2024, MacPherson also revealed a secret battle with alcohol addiction. She wrote in a memoir that it led her to miss her cue for an appearance at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney because she was disoriented after downing champagne and vodka to calm her nerves.

Macpherson eventually went to rehab and was able to beat her booze addiction.

However, her marriage to Busson did not last and they split in 2005.

This week, she also took pre-emptive aim at any keyboard warriors who might be warming up to criticise a 61-year-old fronting an underwear campaign.

“I do think what other people think of me is none of my business,” Elle told Today.

“I don’t take things personally and it’s a great exercise when you do something like this, that you look inside and you listen to your own guidance and your own inner sense and not make decisions based on external authority.

“True beauty is being 100 per cent you, exactly authentically you – however you wish to express yourself at that time, without any ifs, buts or maybes or outside approval.”

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