For years, Kylie Minogue has been open about her desire to start a family amid her heartbreaking fertility struggles.
The Australian singer, 57, shared in her new KYLIE Netflix documentary that she postponed chemotherapy back in 2005 to undergo ‘numerous’ rounds of IVF.
Yet her hopes of becoming a mother heartbreakingly decreased when her cancer treatment impacted her chance to conceive naturally.
Kylie bravely battled breast cancer at the age of just 36 and secretly went through cancer for a second time in 2021.
Following her recovery from her first diagnosis, Kylie considered alternative ways of becoming a mother like adoption and surrogacy at the time after failed rounds of IVF.
Her sister Dannii Minogue heartbreakingly discussed in the documentary that she never saw herself being a parent, while her sister did. Dannii shares son Ethan with her ex Kris Smith.
Mum-of-one Dannii said: ‘I never saw myself being a parent and she [Kylie] always did and that is just heartbreaking.’
In the raw series, Kylie bravely discusses the reality of life not always going to plan.
Kylie was faced with the question of wanting children during her first diagnosis which led her to undergo IVF in the hope of having children one day.
For years, Kylie Minogue, 57, has been open about her desire to start a family amid her heartbreaking fertility struggles
She said she tried ‘a few times’ to conceive via IVF, always ‘with such a thread of hope,’ believing that she ‘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,’ she said.
Kylie added: ‘I was 36 when I got my diagnoses so already it’s – you need to be thinking about children.
‘So I did try, I even postponed my chemotherapy to try, which was quite scary at the time because you just want it out, gone.’
In emotional scenes, Kylie read out a letter that she had written to a future child while going through the process.
She read: ‘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 in 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’.
Kylie made headlines back in 2016 when she shared an important message for those who keep asking her if she’s planning on starting a family.
Speaking to Sunday Times Magazine, she said: ‘Trust me, there’s a point when the next person who says, “Well, there are so many options”, you want to scream.
‘Of course, it’s great there are options. It’s marvelous! But when you’re dealing with all the other stuff and things that you took for granted are taken away from you, it’s like, yes there are options, but…’
How should society support women whose dreams of motherhood are disrupted by illness or circumstance?
The Australian singer shared in her new KYLIE Netflix documentary that she postponed chemotherapy back in 2005 to undergo ‘numerous’ rounds of IVF
Yet her hopes of becoming a mother heartbreakingly decreased when her cancer treatment impacted her chance to conceive naturally
The Australian pop star, who rose to fame in the 1980s on hit soap Neighbours, was at the height of her career and gearing up to headline Glastonbury when she first fell ill in 2005.
She was forced to pull out of the festival and cancel a series of London shows as she underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy in Paris, with her family and then-boyfriend Olivier Martinez by her side.
Years later, Kylie went through cancer for a second time just five years ago which she said left her a ‘shell of a person’.
The Princess of Pop tearfully recalled keeping her 2021 diagnosis a secret from the public during her recent career resurgence in the third episode of her candid doc.
The singer revealed that she had been at such a low point during the illness that she ‘didn’t want to leave the house’.
She said she’d been trying to find the ‘right time’ to tell her fans about her second primary breast cancer, diagnosed during a routine check-up, but struggled to do so and ended up keeping it to herself for five years.
‘My second cancer diagnosis was in 2021,’ she said in the closing minutes of the documentary, sitting with her songwriting team.
She said she was ‘able to keep that to myself’, unlike the ‘first time’, during which every move she made was documented.
‘I’ve been trying to find the right time to say it,’ she said.
‘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.’
Her hit comeback single Padam Padam was released in 2023 and it became the song of the summer, even winning a Grammy Award for Best Pop Dance Recording.
But behind the scenes, Minogue was still battling cancer and, while keen to tell the world, never quite found the right opportunity.
Kylie bravely battled breast cancer at the age of just 36 and secretly went through cancer for a second time in 2021
Her sister Dannii Minogue heartbreakingly discussed in the documentary that she never saw herself being a parent, while her sister did (pictured together in childhood)
‘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 said.
‘And I really just wanted to say what happened so I can let go of it.
‘I would sit through interviews and every opportunity I thought, “Now’s the time,” but I kept it to myself.’
The singer revealed that her song Story, written for her sixteenth studio album, Tension, was about her second cancer battle.
Unbeknownst to fans, the song detailed her diagnosis, with lyrics including: ‘I had a secret that I kept to myself, yeah/ I had a one-way ticket that was goin’ nowhere.’
‘It was important but crucially, I didn’t feel obliged,’ Minogue has said of her decision to speak about her second diagnosis in the documentary.
‘I was thankful it was my decision and my choice to share. Making this documentary has meant looking back at so many pivotal moments in my life and this was another one.’
She said she hoped her decision to discuss it would help someone who could ‘benefit from a gentle reminder to do their check-ups.’
She added: ‘Early detection was very helpful and I am so grateful to be able to say that I am well today.’
Kylie said that ‘thankfully I got through it again’ and now ‘all is well.’
