You want naked? I'll give you naked... Elle Macpherson reveals that when she strips, it's on HER terms

Last updated at 3:45 PM on 23rd November 2011

There's no doubt it is easier for Elle Macpherson to strip naked in front of the camera than it would be for most.

But even a stunning supermodel with the nickname The Body likes to keep a firm handle on just who gets to see her in the altogether.

The willowy Australian model has revealed her tactics for dealing with invasive paparazzi trying to snap naked pictures of her: She sells them the photos herself.

In control: Elle Macpherson says everything she has done over her career has been a carefully considered decision

When the Press began a campaign to procure naked photos of Macpherson following her nude appearance in 1994 film Sirens, haranguing ex-boyfriends and photographers for snaps, rather than attempt to protect her privacy (which would inevitably be breached anyway), Macpherson decided to give them what they wanted - but in a way that suited her.

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I said, 'OK, you want naked? I'll give you naked - but on my terms,' she recalled in an interview with the Telegraph this week.

Macpherson contacted the photographer Herb Ritts, who agreed to shoot her naked (you can imagine the resistance now...).

On her terms: When Macpherson discovered the paparazzi were trying to unearth naked photos of her, she decided to sell them one herself - and buy her mother a house with the proceeds

The resulting pictures made it onto the cover of Playboy and across numerous pages inside - and Macpherson bought her mother a house with the proceeds.

Macpherson's determination to achieve financial independence came, she says, as a result of working for years for men's magazine Sports Illustrated - and realising that toiling away for someone else to take home the big bucks just did not suit.

'I recognised that working for a business in which I did not have a profit share was not attractive,' she says.

Beach body: Macpherson in a swimwear shoot from 1985

She has never been 'clouded by ego: "isn't it great that I'm on the cover? Or isn't it great they want me for this television commercial?'" Instead, it was "why am I doing this?"'

It was, she adds, 'an understanding that to create my future, I needed something more tangible than compliments on the way I looked'.

Hence the development of the impressive business acumen that has led to Macpherson not only appearing on five covers of Sports Illustrated's coveted swimsuit issue, in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar among many others, launching her beauty product range, Elle Macpherson: The Body, and also running her own lingerie business - Elle Macpherson Intimates - with which she is heavily involved on a day-to-day basis.

She has amassed a multi-millionaire fortune in her own right, owns several properties and is still landing top jobs in the notoriously ageist modelling industry.

She seems to have it all. And it is testament to her savvy way of dealing with the the media that she has managed to weather the recent phone-hacking storm so discreetly.

Although she was one of the first to be revealed as an alleged victim of the News of the World private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, Macpherson says she decided early on to as much as possible allow the scandal to wash over her head, remaining more or less silent on the matter.

Revealing: Elle Macpherson appeared naked opposite in the 1994 film Sirens

Macpherson says her immediate instinct was to remain as uninvolved as possible.

'I believe I've made the right choice,' she says. 'And I made that choice years ago, because I did not want to perpetuate stories. I did not want to be involved, I did not enter into the discussions whatsoever.'

'I made a decision not to become embroiled. Contrary to any suggestions, I categorically deny receiving any compensation whatsoever.'

She maintains she has never discussed hacking with Hugh Grant - her co-star in Sirens - or other showbusiness pals. 'I really didn't need to be jumping on a bandwagon or crusade,' she says, adding: I don't think I was aware of the magnitude at the time.'

Hacked: Macpherson says she made a decision not to become embroiled in the phonehacking scandal, and denies receiving compensation