Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Why everyone wants Kylie to be lucky, lucky, lucky in love
Decades of romances and heartbreak
The image of Kylie Minogue walking down the aisle has become a moment of true pop culture history. But while Scott and Charlene’s wedding in Neighbours was watched by 20 million Brits in 1988, it was just the start of a 30-year public obsession with Kylie tying the knot for real.
In the decades since singing about being lucky, lucky, lucky in love, she has endured plenty of tears on her pillow, teetering from head-spinning passionate affairs with rock gods, rocky splits with models and a failed engagement to a much younger actor.
Perhaps that’s why fans have been getting overexcited that she might be planning to say “I do” to GQ magazine boss Paul Solomons,
46, after two years of dating.
Firstly, actress Billie Piper seemed to leak the news by referring to Welshman Paul as Kylie’s “fiance”, and his stepmum appeared to confirm it.
Reps for Kylie, 52, denied it, saying they are “happy as they are”, but Kylie had everyone spinning around again after posting a picture of her wearing a ring on her engagement finger in a photoshoot.
Kylie has denied reports by saying: “We all love Love, but rumours are getting out of hand.”
Yet the biggest question of all is why her nuptials, or lack of, have become something of a national obsession.
Psychologist Dr Pam Spurr believes Kylie’s iconic Neighbours wedding may have wrongly made fans think marriage is her ultimate dream.
Dr Spurr says: “Such a popular soap opera wedding can set up expectations that a wedding is what Kylie really wants. But that may have set in motion a lot of future pressure on her.
“People need to be aware that when we tell a celebrity in a tweet or Instagram message we hope they marry, it can cause pain. We are putting our own expectations upon them.
“If Kylie says she doesn’t dream of marrying, it’s time we respect her.”
Kylie said herself in 2018: “The first flush of love, that’s the best. I don’t know that marriage is for me.”
She has not been short of romance for long but her dating history has not been a bed of roses. In fact, she has had her share of thorny problems.
Back in the days when her bubble perm spilled out from the top of a hat, she was dating on-screen husband Jason Donovan. They became the ultimate, clean-cut dream couple.
But in 1989, after three years together, Kylie crushed her fellow
Aussie by dumping him in a longdistance phone call, before her steamy love affair with INXS frontman Michael Hutchence.
Jason told the Mirror in 2016: “It was an extremely painful parting.
“I took a long time to recover from it – years. She happened to run into the arms of the greatest rock god of the period, the very guy who I secretly wanted to be. That was a pretty big punch to take.”
Michael left Kylie devastated when he dumped her, but he gifted her a new, sex bombshell image.
Kylie said of Michael: “Sex, love, food, drugs, music, travel, books, you name it, he wanted to experience it. As his partner, I got to experience a lot of that as well.”
Michael, who dated model Helena Christensen after his romance with Kylie, took his own life in 1997.
Kylie’s fling with rock star Lenny Kravitz in 1991 was as brief as her famous gold hotpants. She moved on with photographer Stéphane Sednaoui before living with model
James Gooding in London for three years. Their break-up was nastier than Mrs Mangel on the warpath.
James – who admitted cheating on Kylie with model Sophie Dahl – branded Kylie a “self-obsessed, virtually friendless, control freak”.
The singer moved on with French actor Olivier Martinez who was “her rock” following her breast cancer diagnosis in 2005.
The pair split amicably in 2007 and Olivier went on to marry and have a son with actress Halle Berry.
Kylie later dated Spanish model Andres Velencoso who she met in 2008 while filming an advert. Then in 2016 Kylie announced her
ON NUPTIALS IN NEIGHBOURS
engagement to actor Joshua Sasse, who is 19 years her junior.
Within a year their marriage plans were in shreds when rumours swirled of Joshua flirting with another actress.
Kylie went to Thailand for six days to “heal”. She said: “My physical system was compromised. I think it’s called a nervous breakdown.”
She added: “I never thought I would get married. Just going through ‘being engaged’ seems like an experiment.”
Kylie also said: “I’ve always been more into romance over marriage.”
Those fans wanting to see her wedding should perhaps grab the tissues and watch a re-run of Scott and Charlene’s big day instead.