Elle Macpherson felt it was "not logical" to have a mastectomy as she battled breast cancer

She has now added to the backlash by addressing her approach in an interview on '60 Minutes Australia', in which she said surgery flew in the face of her "belief system", which led her to rely on an "intuitive, heart-led holistic approach".

Elle - who is in remission from cancer - said: "As you can imagine, (the diagnosis) was a bit of a shock.

"I think any woman, most women, when they're diagnosed, don't think it will to happen to them."

After having a lumpectomy Elle was told her cancer may have spread, and

was urged to have a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation and hormone replacement.

But she said about the idea of taking the gruelling set of treatments: "I sit here cool as a cucumber talking about it but the reality is, you know, it was a very big deep breath moment - let's put it that way.

"You know, it's not logical. It was just an inner sense. I had a feeling that there was a different way to approach this and I followed it.

"It was a choice of losing my breasts, or losing my life, that I was given. So it was not a vanity choice, let me put it that way.

"It was a natural route in my treatment from within."

Elle insisted she has always followed "natural" medicine, and said her choice was as "unconventional" as the "rest of her life".

The model went against the advice of 32 doctors by refusing chemotherapy after undergoing a lumpectomy for HER2 positive oestrogen receptive intraductal carcinoma.

She had eight months of intense therapy with a team of doctors in Phoenix, Arizona, all specialising in various holistic medicine disciplines.