HELLO! Exclusive: Come into Kylie Minogue's world

Kylie Minogue is as much an honorary national treasure as she is an enigma. Despite spending four decades in the spotlight, the “Princess of Pop” has kept her private world behind a velvet curtain — until now. With a highly anticipated three-part Netflix documentary out in May, one that is set to pull back the lens on her extraordinary life, Kylie is finally ready to tell her story.

Yet when HELLO! meets the “five foot and a whisper” superstar (ahead of the premiere) at a suite in Soho’s Ham Yard Hotel — dressed in full glam, of course — she is playfully apprehensive about its imminent release.

“It’s not out in the wild yet,” she says, “so, I’ve yet to see what the result is.” “It” is a fascinating and celebratory retrospective. From her breakout success as Charlene on the Australian soap opera Neighbours in the late ’80s to her evolution into a global pop icon with more than 80 million records sold, the documentary spans the full, vibrant gamut of Kylie’s career. Nevertheless, taking part was clearly an overwhelming experience for the notoriously private star.

“The trust fall was one worth taking,” Kylie channels her inner Marilyn Monroe at a 1994 show in London; the pop star sports her signature glam at the TMF Awards in 2000 in Belgium (above) she says of working with Michael Harte, the BAFTA-winning director behind similar Netflix documentaries on Sir David Beckham and Michael J Fox. “But the process was deep and long — it was a lot of work. But I think we all wanted to work hard and get a good result.” The documentary sees Kylie, who recently returned to her native Australia after nearly three decades living in the UK, sitting in a long-time friend’s apartment in Paris as she sifts through her archives, revealing never-before-seen personal photographs and home videos. “I had come across archive after archive for months and months,” she tells us of the process, adding that often unmarked video tapes “from God knows when” would spark memories, and then she’d quickly have to get the camera set up to film her reaction. “I think we had some lucky breaks along the way,” she laughs.

THE KYLIE & JASON STORY

One of the lucky breaks was getting her former boyfriend and Neighbours co-star Jason Donovan, whom she dated from 1986 to 1989, to contribute to the documentary. The couple famously became close while playing on-screen sweethearts Charlene Mitchell and Scott Robinson on the show.

In a highlight of the first episode, Jason is surprisingly candid about their love affair. He appears heartbroken that it ended, admitting that he thought they would get married and start a family together. He uses colourful language as he complains that to this day that he’s still constantly asked by cab drivers about their romance.

So, how did Kylie feel about Jason dropping these truth bombs?

“There’s some clangers!” she says. “It’s just unreal. I just thought that’s quintessential Jason Donovan. Maybe all of us, as we kind of go through life, become [bigger] versions of ourselves. “I just thought that’s so JD. Swearing, telling it how it is. I love seeing how he felt at ease enough to be really truthful, even when it was a painful conversation. I appreciated it so much.

Kylie adds: “I didn’t know what any of the contributors had said. I didn’t know how the documentary had taken shape. It was all revealed to me when I went to see it. You can only imagine it was… I was very moved by what Jason said and also just by all the footage of us in Neighbours. Very fond memories indeed.”

A LIFE-CHANGING PERIOD

The painful conversation to which Kylie alludes occurs when Jason is asked about his feelings towards the late Michael Hutchence, the frontman of the band INXS. Michael famously dated Kylie for two years after she split from Jason in 1989 — a break-up that, at the time, appeared particularly bitter from Jason’s perspective. “I could tell something wasn’t right. I could tell. I could smell it,” Jason recalls in the documentary.

Kylie says that for her, speaking about Michael, who died by suicide in 1997, was understandably emotional. “That was the first time I cried on camera in interviews,” she recalls. “I was like: ‘Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh.’ I knew it was going to happen and here it comes. I didn’t think it would be about that conversation. But when I really think about him and talk about him, I can often just feel his presence and think about that time.

“In the conversations about Michael, I was really trying to put myself back in the moment, so I would become more emotional, which was interesting. I think it was good. Maybe it’s just something that people can relate to.” The documentary reveals that Michael led Kylie into a decadent, rock n’ roll lifestyle and a journey of self-discovery that helped change her image from that of an innocent soap star to pixie-cropped pop diva. Their ultimate split left her “devastated” and, in one of the most revealing moments of the entire series, she says: “It was definitely an amazing point in time. I’ve probably been looking for something like that ever since — and I haven’t got it.”

A PUBLIC PRIVATE LIFE

The documentary also explores the “devilish” rumours of her past, touching on whispers of a high-octane “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll” lifestyle during her most rebellious era. Ever the professional, Kylie remains expertly tight-lipped, letting the mystery of those wilder years speak for itself. “I like to keep the mystery,” she tells us. “I am not a ‘here it all is’ kind of person. I don’t think I’ll ever be that person. “And I think for one’s own sanity, you need to keep... I mean, it probably sounds at odds as I’m sitting in front of a documentary poster. I’ve lived a public life, but I am still a very private person.” In a touching scene in the series, Kylie is joined by her sister, Dannii, her mother Carol, her father Ronald, and her brother, Brendan, who is rarely seen.

“There is not a world in which my parents are going to sit down and do a talking‑head interview. They don’t do that,” she says. “So I really have to speak with all the family before kind of hitting the green light.” Kylie explains that if she found anything family‑related in her archives, she would immediately check in with them to ensure that they were happy with the result. “Anything that had family in it? I sent it to them first,” she says. “So it’s been quite a process. If it was my archive, that was fine, but anything to do with family, I needed them to be OK with it.”

THE CANCER ORDEAL

In the final episode, Kylie delves into her huge pop comeback with the single ‘Spinning Around’ in 2000, as well as her experience with breast cancer, which she admits was a “struggle” to relive for the Netflix documentary. In May 2005, at the age of 36, Kylie was informed she had breast cancer, which forced her to cancel her tour and a Glastonbury appearance for surgery and chemotherapy. After undergoing treatment in Melbourne and Paris, she was given the all clear in 2006 and returned successfully to the stage.

After a long pause, Kylie tells HELLO! that the experience of discussing this was “both cathartic and difficult”. She says: “You know, I’m talking about it from a vantage point where I’m not in that situation now, so my only struggle with that is I can never really tell that whole story. There’s a lot to it, and it doesn’t kind of come and go. It’s something you still have to navigate.”

Kylie can’t help but quote her own song ‘Story,’ a deeply personal closing track from her hit 2023 album Tension, in which the lyrics reflect on overcoming personal difficulties with the support of others. “I knew [the cancer battle] would be part of the story. I just keep going to the [song’s lyrics]: Were you part of my story?” Reflecting on our conversation about holding back on private matters such as these, she tells us: “Again, I think my audience, in general, knows there are boundaries, and they are happy to exist with me either reading between the lines or knowing that [they’ve] got my heart. My common sense holds me back a little bit, and I’m happy with that ratio.”

All images are courtesy of Getty Images

Interview by George Stark

This story was featured in the Vol 1. Issue 9 of HELLO! India. For more exclusive stories, subscribe to the magazine here.