Kylie Minogue breaks down in tears on US TV over breast cancer ‘trauma’

Australian pop icon Kylie Minogue broke down in tears on US television after talking about the “trauma” of her breast cancer diagnosis and the “amazing” things it taught her.

The gay icon and Grammy-winning artist is currently experiencing yet another career high as she performs in Las Vegas for a glamorous residency running until May 2024. It comes after her ear-worming hit, “Padam Padam”, from her chart-topping album Tension, became her biggest US hit in more than 20 years.

Over her sixteen-album and four-decade-long career, Minogue, 55, has overcome professional and personal hurdles – most notably in 2005, when the then-36-year-old singer underwent treatment for breast cancer, including surgery and chemotherapy. She was given the all-clear in 2006.

The “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” hitmaker reflected on her cancer battle in an emotional interview on CBS News with Seth Doane.

“You have to get on with stuff,” she told the Doane as she started to well up. When asked if it was “the fear” that was making her upset, Minogue added: “It’s trauma, and any trauma resides within you. The experience of a cancer diagnosis will live in me. It was difficult.”

However, the pop star concluded on a beautifully optimistic note as she explained why the experience was, surprisingly, “amazing” as well.

“Amazing, in that you are very aware of your body, of the love that’s around you, of your capability, all sorts of things,” she said. “I sing to process everything, I think. I write to process, I perform to process and sometimes I think I live to perform.”

Breast cancer isn’t the only hardship Minogue has faced while under the public spotlight. In September, the former Neighbours star opened up about the impact fame has had on her mental health.

“I was able to manage that myself and with my family and close friends and navigate those waters,” she told Rolling Stone. “It wasn’t a decision [to stay private], it was a reaction to protect myself and to protect my family because they would go through it with you.”

She praised the fact that it was much easier to have open conversations about mental health now, compared to when she started her singing career in 1988 after leaving her high-profile role in Australian soap Neighbours.

It was a move that led to seven number one albums, securing Minogue’s status as the biggest female Australian artist of all time.