For years, sisters Dannii and Kylie Minogue have always been compared.
And Dannii says she ‘wouldn’t be alive’ if she wasn’t so mentally strong after years of ‘nasty comments’ and being compared to her elder sibling Kylie.
Speaking on Fearne Cotton’s the Happy Place podcast, Dannii revealed: ‘I’ve said this to my friends, “I know that, if I wasn’t mentally strong and I did have any kind of eating disorder or something, I wouldn’t be alive now.” That is fact.
‘It was so brutal, and it went on for years.’
And despite critics trying to create a sibling rivalry, Dannii, 53, and Kylie, 56, remain a united force.
She added: ‘I was compared to my sister, who’s always had a completely different body shape our entire lives.
Dannii Minogue admits she ‘wouldn’t be alive’ if she had listened to ‘nasty comments’ comparing her and sister Kylie’s bodies
Despite critics trying to create a sibling rivalry, Dannii, 53, and Kylie, 56, remain a united force
‘I wasn’t living up to her body. At the time, the only body shape that was accepted was slim.
‘I was a square trying to fit into a hole. You read back now how nasty the comments were.’
Dannii went on to share her priority is now is spending precious time with her family and only taking on work that’s ‘important’ to her.
She is in a relationship with music producer Adrian Newman, and said giving birth to son Ethan, 14, in 2010 changed her focus.
She explained: ‘I’ve spent my life travelling around the world, being away, missing birthdays, weddings, funerals.
‘I’m really trying to find the balance now.
‘You can’t have just the happiness without everything else. If you accept there’s light and dark, it’s all part of it.’
It comes after Dannii opened up about the devastating time her pop star sister Kylie was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005.
Speaking on Fearne Cotton ‘s the Happy Place podcast , Dannii revealed: ‘I’ve said this to my friends, “I know that, if I wasn’t mentally strong and I did have any kind of eating disorder or something, I wouldn’t be alive now.” That is fact’
She added: ‘I was compared to my sister, who’s always had a completely different body shape our entire lives’
The Australian singer revealed she was caught between grief and happiness when her sibling was declared cancer-free following surgery and chemotherapy.
While she celebrated the recovery of the Padam Padam hitmaker, she told Stellar on Sunday she was also grieving her friend Laura who died of cancer at the same time.
‘I remember when Kylie was really sick and there was a chance we were going to lose her,’ Dannii said.
‘As she recovered and the world was celebrating, and we all were too, I lost my best friend to cancer and I was grieving. There was this celebration and grieving.’
Dannii first revealed the private tragedy she suffered amid her sister’s recovery in October.
The All I Wanna Do star broke down in tears as she discussed Kylie’s battle with breast cancer during an appearance on ABC’s Take 5 with Zan Rowe.
Dannii tearfully opened up about the severe mental toll the 2005 diagnosis had on the superstar siblings and explained it coincided with the death of her closest friend.
‘My sister got sick with breast cancer in the middle of a tour. I remember her being carried off stage,’ a tearful Dannii began.
‘I was visiting her when she was having chemo and very unwell. I would jump around to music with her, in the process of getting her better, music carried us through.’
Kylie was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 while in the middle of her Showgirl: Greatest Hits world tour.
After a partial mastectomy and rounds of radiation and chemotherapy, Kylie was given the all-clear the following year .
Dannii added her sister asked her to join her onstage for a duet once she got better, and the joy she felt performing alongside Kylie several months later was incredible.
‘It was unbelievable, you could feel the roar from the audience, and we felt that all the way, the love and support was there.’
It comes after Dannii opened up about the devastating time her pop star sister Kylie (pictured) was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005
The Melbourne-born star went on to reveal how her closest friend Laura also battled cancer and sadly died at the same time Kylie received her diagnosis and recovered .
‘My sister had cancer, recovered, it was a wild ride for our family. And then my friend Laura had cancer,’ Dannii said.
‘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.’
Dannii said although these dual tragedies were a particularly dark time for her, she managed to pull through with the support of her sister.
Kylie has been very open about the struggles she faced while battling breast cancer and even urged followers in 2018 to donate to UK-based charity Breast Cancer Care.
Speaking to Karl Stefanovic about her diagnosis on 60 Minutes in 2014, Kylie admitted her cancer journey had taught her to put herself first.
‘Someone had said to me at the time, ‘You need to be a little bit selfish,” she said.
‘It’s not in my nature to be selfish but now is the time to do that. Let people take care of you. And… that’s what I did.’
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated?
What is breast cancer?
It comes from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.
When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding tissue it is called ‘invasive’. Some people are diagnosed with ‘carcinoma in situ’, where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.
Most cases develop in those over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men, though this is rare.
Staging indicates how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.
The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast-growing. High-grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated.
What causes breast cancer?
A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply ‘out of control’.
Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance, such as genetics.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign.
The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.
How is breast cancer diagnosed?
- Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammography, a special x-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours.
- Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under a microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer.
If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest X-ray.
How is breast cancer treated?
Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used.
- Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.
- Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focused on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops them from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
- Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying.
- Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the ‘female’ hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer.
How successful is treatment?
The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure.
The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 71 means more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
For more information visit breastcancernow.org or call its free helpline on 0808 800 6000
