Kylie Minogue has revealed that she fought and overcame breast cancer for a second time in 2021, after previously beating the disease in 2005. Unlike the first time, when her shock diagnosis was announced within days due to an ongoing world tour, this time Kylie kept the entire episode private.
Keeping the Battle Secret
“I was able to keep that to myself and go through that year, not like the first time,” she says tearfully. “I’ve been trying to find the right time to say it — I just couldn’t at the time. I was just a shell of a person.” In 2023, the pop star was thrilled when Grammy-winning song Padam Padam opened many doors, but she felt strange about hiding the major health battle she had fought in secret. “On the inside I knew that the cancer wasn’t just a blip in my life and I really just needed to say what happened so I could let go of it.”
Revelation in Netflix Documentary
She makes the revelation in the third episode of her new Netflix documentary series Kylie. Asked why now seemed the right time to speak out, the singer says it felt important to be truthful. “Thankfully I got through it again and all is well,” she explains. “Making this documentary has meant looking back at so many pivotal moments in my life and this was another one. I also know there will be someone out there who will benefit from a gentle reminder to do their check-ups.”
“As part of my routine check-ups in 2021, I was diagnosed with a second primary breast cancer. Early detection was very helpful and I am so grateful to be able to say that I am well today.”
Coping Through Music
One of her coping mechanisms was to write a song about it, Story, with long-time collaborator Richard “Biff” Stannard. Saying she needed something to mark it, Kylie, 57, explained: “When I started writing Story I knew one day I would share what the meaning behind the song was. Finding the right time to do so was tricky. I didn’t imagine it would be in a documentary but perhaps it found its own time and place.”
Message to Others
Sending a message to anyone reluctant to attend hospital appointments after cancer, she urged: “I get it; you just want to move on and put it in the past or park it to the side. But check-ups are incredibly important. It can be daunting and triggering but please be mindful of just how vital they are — and reach out for help if you need it, you’re not alone.”
First Diagnosis and IVF Journey
Her first diagnosis came in 2005 when she was keen to start a family with her former boyfriend, French actor Olivier Martinez. In episode three, she speaks candidly about her decision to delay chemotherapy in order to have IVF treatment. “There’s so much more to cancer than you had it, you got through it and you’re fine — or fine for now. I was 36 when I got my diagnosis so already it’s — you need to be thinking about children.”
On becoming a mother, she says: “I did try. I even postponed my chemotherapy to try — which was quite scary at the time because you just want it out. Gone. I want to feel safe, I don’t want this. But yeah, I did try a few times with IVF, always it was with such a thread of hope. But I couldn’t not try. If it had happened it would have been just shy of a miracle. But it didn’t work out that way. One can’t help but wonder what it would have been like — I’m so close to my family. But it wasn’t my path.”
A Letter to the Unborn Child
In the film, Kylie reads out words she wrote in a letter to the baby that might have been: “Distant child, my flower, are you blowing in the breeze? Can you feel me as I breathe life into you, wrapped in a blanket of hope, asleep on a bed of dreams? My step into eternity is not what it might have been. Or not at all — for who knows which way the wind is going to blow? I’m waiting for your whisper.”
Family Support
Reflecting on Kylie’s deep desire to have children, her sister Dannii looks bereft on camera as she thinks about how good the star is with her nephews. “I never saw myself as a parent,” she admits. “And she always did. That’s heartbreaking.” Dannii also says she would have done anything to make the cancer disappear in 2005. “I remember saying, if I could chop off one of my arms now and this could all go away, I would. I just felt so helpless.”
Turning Point and Recovery
Having moved to Paris for chemotherapy, Kylie remembers a key turning point when she looked out of the window at the Eiffel Tower and the lights began to twinkle. “I thought ‘Oh, she’s sparkling for me!’ And I thought ‘I’m not finished. This is not where I want to say goodbye’.” After treatment ended and her strength slowly returned, she was determined to finish the world tour. “I wanted to feel able again,” she explains. “But it wasn’t easy, I felt so drained. I felt like my body was a battleground.”
The second diagnosis explains why Kylie quit the UK for Australia towards the end of 2021, settling in Melbourne. She is clear that her parents and siblings have been a lifelong support. “I was saved — I really was,” she says simply. “Of course, you learn what resilience means and what love means. Having had cancer one important thing to know is — you’re still the same person. I remember coming out at the other end and feeling more like myself than ever before.” She has kept cards and messages from fans, sent from all over the world, in a box. “Those letters, in pretty dark moments, they meant so much.”
Glastonbury Triumph
The documentary also charts how, after having to pull out of Glastonbury Festival due to her breast cancer in 2005, she finally made it to the Pyramid stage in 2019, where she drew one of the biggest audiences of all time. Looking back, she says she was full of nerves. “I was terrified it would be like Spinal Tap,” she laughs. In the end, it was a triumph. “It was such a wave of love,” she says. “I had so much goodness from so many people who had willed me to reach that stage.” Marvelling at that career-defining moment, she declares: “I think I might have done it. Little Kylie got there.”
Her friend and singing partner Nick Cave sums up why she is so loved globally. “Her connection with the audience, it’s not phoney,” he says. “It is very real to her — it’s a true form of love.”
Looking Ahead
Looking to the future, Kylie says she plans to take things a bit easy, but jokes that she can rarely manage more than three days without thinking about work. “Hey, who knows what is around the corner?” she reasons. “But pop music nurtures me. Pop can elate you, it can soothe you, it can be a type of salvation for some people. My passion for music is greater than ever.”
Kylie launches on Netflix today (20 May).
