DANNI MINOGUE
The star talks balancing work life and motherhood
Successful recording artist, actress, TV host, model, designer … you name it, Dannii Minogue has tried her hand at it—and succeeded spectacularly. But it’s her role as mum to 8-year-old Ethan that gives her the most satisfaction. A single mother since 2012, when she split with partner Kris Smith, Minogue does the lion’s share of parenting duties solo. And it turns out she’s doing it just as tough as the rest of us.
“It’s a juggle,” says the 46-year-old, who chats to WHO between work commitments and school pick-ups. “The hardest thing is the guilt, because there are times where [work is] intense, and you have got to ‘go for it’ for a short period, then come home and get into the swing of being a mum. You’ve got to be really organised and streamline stuff. You can’t do everything.”
While she’s realistic about what she can achieve, Minogue’s currently juggling myriad interests including her ongoing fashion range and a new show: Dance Boss (starts Mon., Aug. 6, 7.30 PM on Seven). There’s also a new relationship and that rocking body to maintain. It’s a lot. But as she tells WHO, everything is going super well. “I couldn’t feel more at peace with everything,” she explains.
Dance Boss lets people live out their secret passion for dance on Tv—something you did at a much younger age.
Yeah, my secret passion was doing just that, and stumbling into TV and people letting me do that over and over. I said to the teams, “I started off on a show where I wasn’t professionally trained, I wasn’t the best dancer. The whole reason I got through and I’m still doing it today is because I love it. If you love it and have a good time, people will pick up on that.
It must have been a huge commitment for you at such a young age …
It was something I enjoyed. And now I am taking Ethan to gymnastics and basketball and all these things we do and he loves it. The commitment is for the parents to get the children there. I just turned up and did something I loved, but the commitment for the rest of my family was hardcore. Same for the contestants. One had just had a baby, who was nine months old. She was on the side of the set. I said, “I remember going back to work with Ethan.” My first day of work, he was four months old, so I get it. You are in at rehearsals, you are running out, you’re breastfeeding, you are back out there—it’s full-on.
It’s exhausting and so challenging. Do you feel like motherhood is the hardest job you’ve had?
Yeah, it’s the hardest, and the one you have got to be absolutely responsible in every moment of every day and night.
And for all your accomplishments in your professional life, just getting your son to eat his broccoli is as big a deal.
Or tie their shoelaces. Or this morning he wrote the letter ‘G’ and put it in the right place on the right line! I was like, “Wow!”
How do you straddle the two worlds of having a very public life and quite a private life with Ethan?
My work is incredibly important to me and it makes me feel who I am, so I love doing it. And it’s a way I can support my son. So that’s kind of ‘my’ time, and the rest, I block out time that’s with him. Because ... and every other parent will say this to you: “Enjoy it all. It goes so fast.” And they are right.
Ethan’s dad, Kris, has announced he’s having a baby. How do you feel about Ethan becoming a big brother?
I am so excited for both of them. I could not be more happy. And Ethan is just beside himself. Any time he walks past a pram now, he’s like, “Aw, there’s a baby coming soon!” It just energises all of us.
Ethan’s at the age you were when you started on Skyways, isn’t he?
I was seven when I started working. Ethan came on set with me on Dance Boss. I have pictures with him on Australia’s Got Talent,
The X Factor UK and The X Factor Australia, and I said, “You have to come on set and we have got to get our picture taken together.” So he sits on the throne chair with me, and I had this gush of, “At his age I was working professionally and banking cheques.” Like, unbelievable! So I walk him on set and I’m like, “Isn’t it amazing! Come and meet the dancers,” and he turns around and goes, “Mum, check out my Rubik’s Cube!” And I am like, “This is competing with a Rubik’s Cube that you can play with at home any time? What?”
He’s not going to follow in your footsteps then?
Performing in front of people and doing things on cue is not his thing.
You’ve been celebrating your ‘Danniiversary’ in showbiz recently with some retro posts
“My work is incredibly important to me”
on social media. Are you a bit nostalgic at the moment?
I am nostalgic. I put up a few things and it was the biggest response I’ve had. Instead of just doing a throwback picture, I explain something about it. And the more personal I get about how it makes me feel, people really respond to and feel like they were part of that journey. The Young Talent Time ones have been incredible.
Have you and your family kept lots of memorabilia from over the years?
Yeah, we have archive boxes of stuff. It’s just amazing when you go through it. There are obviously pieces where I’m like, “Why the hell did I keep that?” and other things where I think, “I wish I still had that!” Like, I put up a post from Home and Away and someone said, “Did you get to keep Emma Jackson’s black leather jacket,” and I’m like, “Damn it! No, I should have asked wardrobe for it.”
What was it like revisiting that time of your life when you were on Home and Away and met your ex-husband, Julian Mcmahon, for the show’s recent retrospective special?
You don’t understand what feelings are going to come up until you are in the middle of it. It was definitely a realisation that this one year had so much of an impact on the rest of my life. Not only meeting Julian, but because of the show and it being so big in the UK, that meant the record companies wanted to release my stuff there. Then I went there for a three-year trip and came back 22 years later! So without Home and Away, my whole life in the UK would not have happened. I would probably just have had to go out and get a real job!
Looking back, what’s been the best time in your life?
I think now. I am not one of those people who looks back and thinks, “I’d love to be 18 again. Or 21.” I remember I was so excited to turn 30. It was the best moment ever, but I am enjoying how everything is moving on now. And being a mum—every year it changes so quickly. It keeps you energised. Because you have got to keep up.
You’re looking amazing and have been training with Shaynna Blaze’s husband, Scuba Steve. Is he full-on?
He is. But that’s the thing getting me really healthy. I have been going just over a year now, and my immune system is unbeatable. I used to get sick all the time. It builds up whatever it is: white blood cells, red blood cells … I don’t know, but it definitely works.
It really sounds like you’re on top of the world.
The main thing is health. Everyone in the family is healthy, so we can all relax. And careers are going well and family is going well. So you hold on to that every day. Now is just a rare, beautiful bubble and you don’t want it to burst.
“Home and Away had so much of an impact on my life”