PRIVATE PAIN

Pop Star Reveals Secret Second Cancer Diagnosis

The singer says a routine check-up led to a second cancer diagnosis she kept hidden for years.

Kylie Minogue has revealed how she kept her second breast cancer diagnosis private while embarked on a huge career comeback. In a new Kylie documentary released on Wednesday, the Australian pop superstar said the diagnosis came more than 15 years after her first highly public battle with breast cancer in 2005. “My second cancer diagnosis was in early 2021. I was able to keep that to myself… Not like the first time,” she said. Minogue said she recovered but struggled with whether—and when—to tell people. “I just couldn’t at the time because I was just a shell of a person,” she explained. The timing meant she was privately dealing with the aftermath even as her career was soaring again, including the breakout success of the 2023 dance hit “Padam Padam.” “I’d sit through interviews and every opportunity I thought, ‘Now’s the time,’” she said. “But I kept it to myself.” Minogue added that a routine check-up led to the diagnosis and urged others not to skip their own screenings: “Early detection was very helpful.”