How I was cruelly pitted against ‘thin, perfect’ Kylie – by Dannii Minogue
IT’S a milestone that most people dread, but Dannii Minogue says she can’t wait to turn 50.
The former X Factor judge, who marks the big day next October, said birthdays remind her of older sister Kylie’s cancer battle in 2005 and that the family never take ageing for granted.
Dannii also revealed she found herself being ‘pitted against’ Kylie, now 52, at the start of her career r when ‘thin was everything’.
On her 50th milestone, Dannii tells You magazine: ‘I’m like a little kid – this is taking so long. I’m always ageing myself up. I might be 49 but in my head I’m already turning 50.
‘Each year when I have a birthday, I think about when my sister was sick and going through cancer. The doctors said we don’t know if she’s going to get through this.
‘ So if anyone says “Ugh, I’m getting old” I tell them, “Yeah, the lucky ones do. And it’s awesome and you’ve got to enjoy it.” ’
And on being compared to her sister, she recalled conversations where she was told ‘She’s thin and perfect and you’re not, you’re fat’, adding: ‘I’ve had every word said to me. It was difficult.’ The star said that the situation has barely changed in the three intervening decades with young women still under enormous scrutiny.
‘I think there are a lot of changes to be made, not just with social media but all media, the way we t treat women in general,’ she a added. It is a decade since she quit the X Factor panel after a four-year stint marked by a feud with fellow judge Sharon Osbourne, who once likened her to a ‘mosquito you want to flick a away’. Dannii said she felt her last few years in the UK were akin to being ‘in a pressure pot’ adding: ‘I didn’t know what else there would be for me after that.
‘But there were some points when I just thought, “Whoa, it is not worth being in this kind of f career.” Not that I felt like it had crushed me, but I sometimes felt like, maybe I’ll just step away from it because it’s ridiculous!’ Dannii is now raising her son Ethan, ten, in hometown Melbourne and is a judge on the Australian version of The Masked Singer. She added: ‘It’s wacky as anything when you read it on paper – you’re like this shouldn’t work, but it does.’
NOW READ THE FULL EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW IN MAGAZINE