Dannii Minogue broke down in tears as she opened up about Kylie Minogue’s 2005 cancer diagnosis and revealed the six words of comfort she gave her beloved sister.
The Spinning Around hitmaker was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 during her Showgirl: Greatest Hits world tour, and Dannii has remembered visiting Kylie, 56, when she was ‘very unwell’ and undergoing chemotherapy.
Speaking on Australian TV show Take 5 with Zan Rowe, she said: ‘My sister got sick with breast cancer in the middle of a tour.
‘I remember her being carried off stage and stuff.
‘When I would go and visit her when she was having chemo and very unwell, I would just jump around to music with her.
‘It was music that kept us going and she was like, “I need to finish the tour!” She’s so professional.’
Dannii then recalled what she said to her sister in that moment, revealing: ‘I was like, “We need to keep you alive.”‘
‘And yeah, like, we knew that was her goal. To get back and honour all of those tickets.’
When Kylie was able to resume her tour, she invited Dannii onto the stage, and the 52-year-old singer has fond memories of the ‘unbelievable’ moment.
She said: ‘So cut forward to her being able to get back on stage, it was the homecoming tour, she said, “Will you jump on stage with me?” I said, “Sure, I’d love to.”
‘The joy when we came out on stage, from the audience, was unbelievable.
‘You could hear the roar.
‘We felt that the whole time, like getting her better, we felt their love and support was there. Waves of it.’
Dannii’s friend Laura was living with cancer around the same time as her sister, and while Kylie survived, her friend died.
She explained: ‘My sister had cancer, recovered, it was a wild ride for our family. And then my friend Laura had cancer.
‘She was staying with me and said she had a pain in her back – an hour later she was in the foetal position.
‘She went into hospital and she never came out again. It was very hard to see her go through this,’ the Home and Away star recalled.
Kylie lived with cancer for a year – undergoing a a lumpectomy and chemotherapy – before getting the all-clear in 2006.
In 2011 she reflected on the ‘dark, rotten moments’ she experienced during this time while marking five years since being free of the disease.
Speaking to the Sunday Night Programme, she broke down in tears and recalled how the general public didn’t really see her suffering.
‘I stayed indoors and it was my family who supported me through really rotten dark moments,’ she recalled.
The Padam Padam hitmaker also reflected on receiving her diagnosis in a 2020 interview with People, as she said: ‘It’s like the earth had kind of slipped off its axis. You see everything differently.
‘I remember having had my diagnosis, but the world didn’t know. I was with my brother and my boyfriend at the time – we were all in a daze.’
Dannii had success as a child star in Australia, appearing in various soaps from the age of seven before joining the cast of weekly variety programme Young Talent Time in 1982, where she remained for six years.
She also appeared on Home and Away for a year in 1989, and was even more famous in Australia than her pop megastar sister.
Kylie gained recognition in Australia and the UK for playing Charlene Robinson in soap Neighbours for two years in 1986, but launched her music career and soon became a megastar at home and on British shores by the early 1990s.
Both settled in the UK, and years later they upped sticks and are now living back at home in Australia.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
MORE : This Morning legend confirms breast cancer has returned
MORE : I had no idea my daughter’s headache marked the beginning of the end
MORE : Janey Godley sends defiant message to transphobic trolls ‘in the last stages of her life’
