kylie’s guide to…
mending a BROKEN HEART
Change is the order
of the day for Kylie Minogue – a new sound, newly single and a big birthday coming up – and yet somehow pop’s fairy princess looks just the same. But only a glance at Wikipedia would tell you that Kylie will be 50 this May. That’s not to say she hasn’t been busy for the last few years: finishing with her rumoured ‘love rat’ fiancé Joshua Sasse, for one. It’s just that she knows to handle it better, by now. ‘ You just know yourself more,’ she shrugs, sitting in a suite in London’s Corinthia Hotel. ‘ Which doesn’t mean I’m cutting myself off from being open to opportunity and experience. You can still be beautifully complicated – it doesn’t simplify everything. But it’s definitely a change. I don’t know if I can verbalise it that well yet, but it feels good.’
We are here to discuss love, life and, surprisingly, Kylie’s new specs range, her second in association with Specsavers (the first one is the brand’s best-seller). However, the main attraction is obviously Kylie herself, who is decked out in a wafty pink and white Chloé dress (‘I’ve had this 10 years’) with a huge pink mohair cricket sweater layered on top, and cute little white leather ankle boots. Candyfloss chiffon and white leather isn’t exactly everyone’s day attire, but then everyone isn’t Kylie. ‘It feels real to me,’ she says.
In person, she is even smaller and more delicate than you’d expect, teeny-tiny beautiful. But the real surprise is that she herself is a glasses-wearer. She says she has a pair on ‘from the moment I wake up to going to sleep’. Does she get good reactions when she puts them on? ‘Pretty good reactions, actually,’ she smiles. ‘I know that, because I used to have that thing where you’d go on a date, read the menu and’ – she suddenly mimes it – ‘“Let me get my spectacles out!” And I have to say, they go down a treat.’
Dating is on every Kylie fan’s mind, ever since she abruptly broke off her engagement with Sasse, some 20 years her junior, early last year (there were rumours of his cheating with a Spanish actress). Asked today if she’ll date again, she says prudently, ‘I guess so – we’ll see.’ She clearly hasn’t totally given up on love, though, because around her wrist is a bracelet of rose quartz crystals, which her friend bought her last year when they were on holiday in Thailand. ‘ We thought we
needed love crystals,’ she chuckles. What else did she get from Thailand? ‘Relaxation! A few rosés. Beach time.’
Thailand was part of her recovery from the love split (she has said she had ‘a nervous breakdown’). What’s the key to moving on? Drinking rosé? She pauses, dubious. ‘I don’t think rosé is for moving on. I think rosé is for: “Stop. Have a rosé.”’ OK, so what is?
‘ Work. Friends. Change of scenery. And I had all those things, so it was great. And – knowing it was the right thing! You know, even things that have not gone so well – I’m pretty fatalistic about that. We can’t go back, we can’t change anything. You just have to see clearly where you are, and where you’ve been.’ She does admit, though, that getting older is helping her get over things quicker. ‘I definitely feel that change is happening – and it’s good! You don’t have the time, you don’t have the energy – you can cut to the chase more.’
Ask Kylie if she’s where she thought she’d be a few years ago, and she pulls a face. ‘I’ve been asked, ever since I first started doing interviews at 19, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” I’ve never known the answer, honestly.’ Certainly it would have been hard to imagine that she’d end up making a country-pop album, riffing on the tradition of Dolly Parton and co. Her first yee-hah single, Dancing, is a call-to-arms (or at least to the dance floor) anthem. Is she always the first on the floor?
‘I’m normally the guilty party,’ she nods, and mimes again – this time, a bit of a lasso. ‘I don’t think I’m gonna be, and I don’t plan to be, but usually I am.’ She also confides that ‘another thing I’ve stumbled across is, if you have to move furniture – that means a good time. I’ve done that so many times – shifting furniture to make an impromptu dance area.’
Dancing will also be on the menu, obviously, when she goes on tour again this summer. Does she worry about managing her energy after her breast cancer scare in 2005? ‘I think that’s the intention, but it’s easier in theory.’ A tour is a marathon, she says, but the problem is, ‘I am not a marathon runner. I don’t run at all. No Minogues run! It’s a joke in our family.’ However, when she’s on stage, the adrenaline takes over. She isn’t even sure how she stays in shape – she does some yoga ‘once in a while’, but ‘I’m not a gym bunny,’ she frowns. ‘Photo shoots and videos – they’re my workouts!’
She seems philosophical about ageing. Asked if she worries about clothes being age-appropriate, she sighs. ‘I don’t know what the “rules” are, what you’re meant to wear when you’re approaching 50.’ However, she does admit drily that ‘different things go through my mind when I put a bikini on now’. Anyway, she says, it’s difficult to compare different ages.
‘It’s really hard to put yourself back to when you were 20, or 25, because with time passing you think, “Oh, we didn’t have any worries.” Well, yes we did! They were just different worries.’ But, she says, one thing holds true: ‘I just understand myself now – which is rewarding.’ Time for another lasso. Kylie Minogue Eyewear, exclusive to Specsavers, is available in stores nationwide from 9 April; Kylie’s album ‘ Golden’ is out 6 April