Everything's Changed

ELLE is talking to Kylie Minogue about bodies and age and ageing. Given that she’s had serious, life-saving surgery – removal of a cancerous lump from her breast in 2005 – is she more relaxed about the prospect of cosmetic surgery?
‘I’m definitely not one of those people who says, “You shouldn’t do this…”’ she begins. ‘Everyone individually can do what they want. I also think it doesn’t have the stigma that it had when I was growing up. Then it was like this…’ Kylie puts her hands on her cheeks and pulls her face taut. ‘For all time women have wanted to, for the most part, look their best. It’s just that what we have available to us today is… what it is today. And if you want to take advantage of it, yeah. But I’m fine! For the moment.’ She grins. ‘But we’ll see. I’d like to think that I would go through life without having any of that.’ I say she could be forgiven for thinking, ‘I’ve been through cancer, my body is now a temple. Why would I inject myself with Botox? It’s a poison.’
‘Or [thinking] the other way,’ she shoots back. ‘Like, “I understand what it’s all about, and why not?” But I’m preferring to be a lot more… natural these days. I’ve tried Botox, I’ve tried all – .’
She stops short, the privacy-protection instincts honed over nearly 30 years in the public eye kicking in. But there, she’s said it.
Kylie admits that ‘in the past few years I got more and more and more closed’. After her cancer treatment she battened down the hatches. ‘It was protection mode. Even before I was ill, I remember being at a shoot and I had a meltdown in the dressing room – a panic attack. It’s hard to explain, but when you’re the focus of attention, and everything’s coming at you…’ She shudders, the ghost of invasions past coming back to haunt her. And here’s us thinking the girl who was a regular in Australian soaps at 12, was a household name at 18, and spent the next two decades as pop’s premiere princess, was utterly at home – perhaps only came alive – in the spotlight.
She shakes her head. ‘Being in a not-100-per-cent state, it was too overwhelming. So, yeah, my comeback was very gentle and very closed, with the people that I know and that I know I can trust.’
Hardly surprising she was so wary. Her sickness was an assault on something we – and she, perhaps – regarded as just another part of the show: her body. From lingerie shoots to teeny-weeny stage costumes, to that bottom in those hot pants (found by stylist and ‘gay husband’ William Baker for the Spinning Around video), Kylie never shied away from using her sylph-like frame to promote her product. Petite and perfect, it was supposed to be looked at, envied, enjoyed; not subject to the ravages of illness.
She admits her body confidence took a knock, but she’s back at it, stripping down to the bare essentials in the line of duty.
‘Yeah, it’s different now. I actually said on the day of the ELLE shoot, “Oh God, I can’t believe that once again I’m in something that resembles a swimsuit!” Albeit with many thanks to the opaque tights.’
The chemotherapy, course of drugs and her year-long convalescence meant she put on weight. Was that difficult to deal with?
She nods as she sips a cup of hot water. ‘Yeah, it was, I have to say. I still deal with it. I’ve got fat ankles hidden under these boots. But I think my body in many ways is better now for having weight on it. When I look back at some pictures, especially from before I was diagnosed, I just think, “That’s too thin, that doesn’t look good. That doesn’t look right.”’
But now? ‘My face has changed. Everything’s changed. It’s coming back to normal more and more… Whatever normal is,’ she smiles. ‘New normal.’

My year has started off wonderfully

Talk moves to her sister, Dannii and Kylie turns protective. She thought the tabloid depiction of ‘the X Factor drama’ between Dannii and Sharon Osbourne, and then between Dannii and Cheryl Cole ‘was so cheap. I mean, we all know there were issues between Sharon and my sister. But I don’t think there were any between her and Cheryl. I’m just so proud of my sister and it annoys the hell out of me when comparisons between us are made in an unfavourable way to her. In England, you lot don’t know where she came from. She was on TV every week from seven years old. I think that makes it harder for her when she gets Louis Walsh’s rather pathetic jibes – one of which is she hasn’t had a hit record. That’s not true. He has no idea where she’s come from,’ she says forcefully, voice rising in anger. ‘No idea. And neither does England. And that’s quite hard.’
But that’s not on the mind of the younger Miss Minogue when ELLE speaks to her. Instead she’s delightedly reporting that a certain drop-dead handsome Spanish model is ‘definitely’ good for Kylie. That would be the elder Miss Minogue’s new boyfriend, Andrés Velencoso. ‘She is incredible at choosing great people to be around, people that inspire her and she brings out the best in them,’ says Dannii. ‘Her life goal is to see other people smile. So it’s just great to see her have some playtime. I guess that’s a little bit scary when you’ve always been in the bubble of work and you’ve got a schedule telling you where you’re going, what you’re doing. But it’s great to see my sister carefree.’
The carefree time has been spent, recently, at home with Velencoso in Spain; Kylie is due to fly straight there after our interview. We’d been told not to ask about him but, well, we had to.
What’s so great about Andrés?
For once, our chirpy, fluttery hummingbird stays quiet. ‘What isn’t?’ she responds eventually, with a cat-that-got-the-crema smile. ‘That’s my answer. All I’ll say is that my year has started off wonderfully.’
To read the full interview and see Kylie’s exclusive ELLE photoshoot, buy the May issue of ELLE, on sale April 1st.
Kylie’s new perfume, Couture, is out now.

Elleuk.com