The 51-year-old beauty set up her nutrition company WelleCo in May, 2014 to sell health supplements, powders and shakes, and she has revealed she went into the business shortly after discovering a lump in her breast.

"I thought I had cancer", she tells Britain's You magazine."I was away shooting Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model, so I couldn't see my doctor and I was really panicking. It was four weeks before I got the biopsy results, so it was a long, drawn-out and stressful period of not knowing. I was lucky - it was a fibroadenoma (a benign growth), but it was a really big warning.

"I did some soul-searching and realised that maybe I was taking the wrong vitamins and minerals, not eating properly and was too stressed... I was eating and exercising the same as always but my body was numb and unresponsive. I experienced imbalanced digestion, fatigue, listlessness and my joints ached."

She decided to work on her body "from the inside" and set up a meeting with a nutritionist, who recommended a new diet, which encouraged Elle to alter her lifestyle.

"I started sleeping more, woke up with more water, ate less red meat, added more fruit and vegetables and within weeks I felt like a completely different person," she adds.

After noticing the benefits, she set up WelleCo with her Australian business partner Andrea Bux.