Former doctor and founder of the modern anti-vaccination movement Andrew Wakefield is dating Australian supermodel and businesswoman Elle Macpherson, according to reports.
Macpherson, 54, was spotted kissing Berkshire-born Wakefield, 61, at an organic farmers’ market in Miami on Friday.
The mother-of-two recently finalised her divorce from billionaire Jeffrey Soffer, in which she was granted a $53m (£40m) cash settlement and a $26m (£19.7m) property, according to the Daily Mail.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Neverthless, her new relationship is “raising eyebrows”, according to Sydney-based news site News.com.au.
In 1998 Wakefield published a paper in British medical journal The Lancet in which he claimed that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism in children. Over the next five years, vaccinations dropped from 90% to 70% in the UK, The Independent reports.
The study was retracted from The Lancet in 2010, following allegations of misconduct by Wakefield and the other authors. Three months later Wakefield was stripped of his licence by the UK’s General Medical Council, for “ethical violations and failure to disclose potentially competing financial interests”.
However, some parents still refuse to allow their children to have the vaccine amid fears that Wakefield’s theory was incorrectly dismissed by the wider scientific community.
The disgraced former doctor can no longer practice medicine in the UK and and now spends much of his time promoting his heavily criticised anti-vaccination views across the US.
Twitter users, unsurprisingly, were taken aback by the news that he may also be enjoying a new romance across the pond:
-
Should you add your child to your credit card?The Explainer You can make them an authorized user on your account in order to help them build credit
-
Cracker Barrel crackup: How the culture wars are upending corporate brandingIn the Spotlight Is it 'woke' to leave nostalgia behind?
-
'It's hard to discern what it actually means'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctionsThe Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
-
One year after mass protests, why are Kenyans taking to the streets again?today's big question More than 60 protesters died during demonstrations in 2024
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come
-
Why Russia removed the Taliban's terrorist designationThe Explainer Russia had designated the Taliban as a terrorist group over 20 years ago
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across SyriaTHE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weaponsThe Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
-
The arrest of the Philippines' former president leaves the country's drug war in disarrayIn the Spotlight Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the ICC earlier this month
-
Ukrainian election: who could replace Zelenskyy?The Explainer Donald Trump's 'dictator' jibe raises pressure on Ukraine to the polls while the country is under martial law
