Elle Macpherson admits she couldn't stop crying on her 50th birthday.

She told Australia's 'Today Show' on Friday "I had the most beautiful day. It started off, I looked at my phone and I had an email from my brother and it was a video that he'd made of all of my friends and family that were sending happy birthday wishes and he'd put it to music. I cried and cried and cried and cried, it took me four times before I could really see who was on it, because I couldn't see through the tears. It was such a beautiful gift and unexpected."

The lingerie designer has two sons, Arpad Flynn, 16, and Aurelius, 11, with her ex-partner Arpad Busson, and three stepchildren with her billionaire husband Jeffrey Soffer, and she admits keeping their family unit together requires a lot of travelling.

She explained: "My step-kids live in Aspen, Colorado, my children live in London, my husband lives in Miami, my boys go to school in London. I am living in London at the moment but moving to Miami. A blended family requires patience and a lot of love."

But she added: "I love being married. Anybody that tells you it's no different is lying. I truly believe that there's a huge difference between being married and not married."