Kylie reveals second cancer diagnosis in 2021: ‘I was a shell of a person’

By Lauren Del Fabbro, Press Association Entertainment Reporter

Kylie Minogue has revealed she had a second cancer diagnosis in 2021, saying: “I was a shell of a person.”

The Australian singer, known for Can’t Get You Out Of My Head and Spinning Around, revealed she had a second diagnosis in her new three-part Netflix series, titled Kylie.

She reassured fans in the documentary that she had “got through it again, and all is well”.

The 57-year-old was previously diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in May 2005, aged 36, and underwent a lumpectomy and chemotherapy in Paris.

Coverage of her diagnosis caused an unprecedented increase in bookings for mammograms, referred to as the “Kylie effect”.

Nearly two decades after she received the all-clear, the star opened up about her second, more private, battle with cancer and how she struggled to find the “right time” to tell her fans.

She said: “My second cancer diagnosis was in early 2021.

“I was able to keep that to myself and go through that year not like the first time.

“(I’ve) been trying to find that the right time to say it.

“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.

“I didn’t want to leave the house again at one point.”

Minogue released her hit comeback single Padam Padam in 2023 which went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Dance Recording.

She added: “Padam Padam opened so many doors for me, but on the inside I knew that cancer wasn’t just a blip in my life.”

Appearing emotional, Minogue revealed that her song Story, from her 2023 album, Tension helped her mark that time by writing “something that said what I wanted to say”.

She later is seen singing part of the song: ‘I had a secret that I kept to myself, yeah/ I had a one-way ticket that was goin’ nowhere.’

Minogue added: “I really just wanted to say what happened so I can let go of it.

“Thankfully I got through it again and all is well.”

Minogue said the first time she was diagnosed with cancer she postponed her chemotherapy in order to try and get pregnant.

She said: “There is so much more to cancer than just, ‘you had it, you got through and you’re fine – you’re fine for now’.

“I postponed my chemotherapy to try which was quite scary at the time because you just want it out, gone.

“I did try a few times with IVF.

“It was 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. So this was a letter to what might’ve been.”

She read out: “Distant child, my flower, are you blowing in the breeze? Can you feel me as I breathe life into you?”

Dannii added: “She’s just amazing with kids. she’s always been good with kids, just naturally incredible.

“I never saw myself as a parent and she always did, and that is heartbreaking.”

The docuseries follows Minogue’s rise to fame from her early days starring in the Australian soap Neighbours through to her journey becoming one of pop’s biggest stars.

Created by the team behind Netflix’s Sir David Beckham documentary, Beckham, the documentary features archived footage as well as interviews with friends and family including her former Neighbours co-star, Jason Donovan, sister Dannii and musician Nick Cave.

Minogue has gone on to secure eight number one singles in the UK including Spinning Around, Can’t Get You Out Of My Head and I Should Be So Lucky as well as 11 number one albums.

Kylie can be streamed on Netflix from Wednesday.