Pop icon’s shock cancer diagnosis at 36 when they ‘felt like helpless children’

When Kylie Minogue lit up the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival in 2019, neither she nor the thousands of fans singing along to every word of the 18 hits she performed could have been happier. His long-awaited appearance, featuring surprise appearances from Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Australian rock legend Nick Cave, came 14 years after his first performance. And the wait was definitely worth it.

In 2005, just six weeks before she was to headline the Glastonbury Festival, her doctors gave her devastating news: Kylie had breast cancer. The diagnosis hit fans hard, especially because Kylie had always seemed so invincible.

“You can feel like you’re taking these people for granted, that they’ll always be there to bring you that joy, and you can forget that they’re real people,” said Michael Cragg, author of the pop biography Reach For Tea. Stars. “And then something like that is a horrible reminder that she is obviously a human being and that could have been taken away from her.”

Kylie’s friend, singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti, recalled how the news “rocked the universe.” “There’s an exuberance about Kylie – she glows,” he said. “So when that happened… you just don’t want to see someone go through that.”

Kylie was 36 when she first learned she wasn’t feeling well, just days before the Australian leg of her Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour kicked off in Sydney. “The moment my doctor told me, I went silent,” the star said. “My mother and father were with me. Then we all fell apart.

Despite her reputation for keeping her personal life private, Kylie made the bold decision to speak out about her condition, saying she “felt like people needed to know something.” On May 17, his devastating news made headlines around the world, but it was a decision that undoubtedly helped save lives.

Dubbed the ‘Kylie Effect’, there has been a global rise in the number of women getting checked for breast cancer symptoms, with a 40% increase in screening bookings in her home country alone. For Kylie, the glare of publicity that followed her announcement was overwhelming.

“I had a grace day where I knew (my diagnosis),” she said in a 2006 interview. “I said, ‘OK, we have to make an announcement. Then I was practically a prisoner in the house.