'Elle Macpherson was hacked... but she thought I was an alcoholic and telling tales'

Suspicion: Elle Macpherson
12 April 2012

Supermodel Elle Macpherson sent her manager to a psychiatric unit to undergo treatment for suspected alcoholism after wrongly suspecting her of leaking secrets while drunk, the Leveson inquiry heard today.

Mary-Ellen Field was forced to spend 10 days at the "grade one psychiatric facility" in Arizona after the Australian supermodel failed to realise her phone was being hacked.

Ms Field told the inquiry how Macpherson suspected her of revealing details of her custody battle with financier Arpad Busson over their children after their split in 2005.

In a testimony showing how her life had been destroyed by the false allegations, Ms Field said she had been forced by Macpherson to attend the drying-out course or face being fired as she suspected she had leaked secrets while drunk.

She said: "Elle had proposed I be sent to rehab to recover from my alcoholism - to the same place she goes to - and they will pay for it and when I get back after five weeks everything will be lovely."

She was given the ultimatum at a meeting with the supermodel and the boss of the law firm that represented her interests in developing her lingerie range, The Body.

"I thought they had all gone mad," she said. "I thought I could go to this meeting and convince them they had all turned into lunatics.

"She (Elle) went in and put her arms around me and said she knows what it's like to be an alcoholic and she is going to help me, and she knows I would never have spoken to the media were it not for my alcoholism. I was speechless."

The inquiry into press standards will also hear today from Steve Coogan and ex-footballer Garry Flitcroft. The actor and comedian, best known for his role as Alan Partridge, believes his phone was hacked by the News of the World.

In an interview with the Guardian two months ago, he claimed that the Sunday tabloid's then editor Andy Coulson personally orchestrated an unsuccessful attempt to trick him into admitting he had slept with a woman.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in