In a new docuseries about Kylie Minogue, the pop star revealed that after she faced a cancer scare that the media covered heavily two decades ago, she privately faced a second diagnosis in 2021 and “got through it again.”
“Thankfully, I got through it, again, and all is well,” she said in the film, according to the BBC. “Hey, who knows what’s around the corner, but pop music nurtures me… my passion for music is greater than ever.” The three-part docuseries, Kylie, is available now on Netflix.
In May 2005, Minogue announced she had been diagnosed with the early stages of breast cancer, forcing her to cancel tour dates. “Hopefully all will work out fine, and I’ll be back with you all again soon,” she said at the time. Later that month, news broke that she was recovering from surgery and that her doctor had deemed the operation a success. It is not known if her second bout of cancer was also breast cancer.
In the docuseries Kylie, Minogue said she had a hard time deciding when the right time to talk about her second diagnosis was, even as she did press for her 2023 album, Tension. “I don’t feel obliged to tell the world, and actually I just couldn’t at the time because I was just a shell of a person,” Minogue said in the docuseries, according to the BBC. “I didn’t want to leave the house again at one point.
“[The Tension single] ‘Padam Padam’ opened so many doors for me, but on the inside I knew that cancer wasn’t just a blip in my life,” she continued. “And I really just wanted to say what happened so I can let go of it. I’d sit through interviews and every opportunity I thought, ‘now’s the time’, but I kept it to myself.”
She’s talking about it now, she said, to encourage people to get routine checkups, since that’s how her doctors discovered her diagnosis. “Early detection was very helpful and I am so grateful to be able to say that I am well today,” she said. Minogue’s publicization of her first diagnosis led to many women, especially in Australia, getting checked, leading to what the BBC calls “the Kylie effect.”
In the docuseries, Minogue revealed that she initially postponed treatment the first time so she could do IVF. Saying no to chemotherapy was “very scary,” she said. She was eventually deemed cancer-free in 2008.
In 2013, Minogue told Rolling Stone she hoped her story of surviving cancer could offer hope to those struggling with cancer. “I realized in my story there was a lot of courage, and from the people around me as well – my parents, my brother and sister, the rest of my family, friends, and from myself, of course,” she said. At the time, she was accepting the Courage Award at an event benefitting EIF’s Women’s Cancer Research Fund. “I’m very honored to be presented with the award, and I can only accept on behalf of anyone who has been through or is going through this kind of ordeal, because you do have to dig deep.”
Kylie was directed by Michael Harte, who also made the Michael J. Fox film, Still. Among others, it features insights from Minogue’s sister, Dannii Minogue; actor and singer Jason Donovan, who once dated Minogue; Nick Cave; and music producer Peter Waterman.
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