Horsham-based female personal trainer, Becky, is a specialist qualified in supporting those with lived experience of cancer. Having survived sarcoma herself, Becky often pays attention to media coverage of cancer. Here, she blogs on Netflix’s recent documentary about Kylie Minogue, which discusses her experience.
I’ve blogged about several celebrities and their cancer experiences when they’ve shared them. Something that I want to highlight at the top of this piece is that every single one of them has proven how unique the circumstances are. Whether it’s how they discovered that they had cancer, what treatment they went through, how their body responded, or something else entirely, each one has shown that, whilst we may all face the same broad storm, how we feel about it varies.
Our parasocial relationships and the way the media now works often affords us the kind of information sharing that we haven’t previously had access to. I’m always grateful to those who are willing to discuss details of their experience – I think that it goes some way to helping educate those without lived experience, and provide comfort to those who do.
So: let’s talk about Kylie Minogue.
Kylie on Netflix
Netflix’s recently-released documentary mini-series about Kylie Minogue has received a lot of press coverage. I wasn’t intending to watch it, until a couple of stories highlighted that, not only is this documentary unprecedented (Kylie tries to keep her private life to herself), but it is the first time that Kylie has spoken in this way about her cancer experiences. Many people are aware that she was initially diagnosed and treated for breast cancer in 2005, but the documentary also reveals that she experienced what’s referred to as a recurrence in 2021. She kept the second incidence private until now, and it was successfully treated.
Kylie Minogue discussing cancer
There are three episodes in the documentary, charting her career from beginning to the present day. As a result, the first two episodes don’t mention her cancer experience, but this is addressed at length in the third episode.
The narrative demonstrates that Kylie was experiencing a busy and highly successful period of her career, and she herself points out that she was feeling more fatigued than usual, and had lost some weight without trying to. Then aged 36, the diagnosis came as a huge shock and she had to cancel a tour plus her headline slot at Glastonbury Festival – which had been a huge coup of an achievement.
I appreciated Kylie’s comments on the shock of diagnosis – she references feeling as though the world tilted on a different axis, which felt relatable to me. I also felt sad for her – the press intrusion was significant, and I reflected on this: whilst Kylie’s 2005 diagnosis came just prior to the days of social media (a time when we tend to feel that there is now even more scrutiny and pressure), she really was hounded in the aftermath of her diagnosis and throughout her treatment, which took place on two different continents. It’s quite disgraceful, and again relatable – no cancer patient owes anyone their story, and I know that many of us choose to tell only a select group of people, as we are short on reserves during treatment.
Whilst Kylie had a lot of privilege in terms of finances (and therefore long-term security whilst she wasn’t able to work) plus family support, she also received a lot of unwanted attention at a time when she was clearly vulnerable. She speaks openly in the documentary about experiencing difficulties with her mental health whilst on treatment, as well as managing treatment side effects.
Kylie moving on from cancer
One of the parts I found particularly compelling – because there are many people who tell similar stories about the experience of things such as losing their hair, fatigue, and nausea – was how she spoke about the emotional fallout and recovery.
As a musician, Kylie has processed some personal experiences through her art. When she first emerged from treatment, Kylie did discuss her health in interviews, and her being public about her case saw a huge increase in women seeking screening. But in the documentary, she reflects further, and states openly that, whilst she was able to discuss some things at the time, she was, “still going through it”, doing an album about it at that point wasn’t right for her, “It was a bit too close”.
That part struck a chord with me – I spent a lot of time processing my own whirlwind before moving forward with some more public advocacy, support, and sharing.
Kylie continues to state that, “There’s so much more to cancer than, ‘You had it, you got through it, and you’re fine’…I postponed my chemotherapy to try [fertility treatment], which was quite scary, because you just want it out, gone…”. Fertility was something that had already been on her mind prior to the cancer diagnosis – and she was regularly asked about it in interviews – as she was in her mid-30s. As for many people who experience cancer at a similar age, the diagnosis threw her prospects of having biological children into sharp relief, and she decided to try, though was unsuccessful.
The topic closes with her sharing her thoughts on not having children 20 years after the fact of trying. She says that whilst she experienced maternal urges and had truly hoped to become a mother, she now recognises that this wasn’t her path. This is something that a lot of cancer patients and survivors struggle with, and it comes across as something that Kylie has found challenging – another moment many will relate to.
Kylie and cancer: part two
The very end of the documentary is when Kylie’s second diagnosis is revealed. She gets very emotional about it, and it’s clear how private she’d kept it. She states that she didn’t feel obliged to tell the world and that, at the time she was, “a shell of a person”. This experience is much closer to the present day, so it’s unsurprising that it’s still more raw than her previous one.
She shares that she’d contemplated opening up about the diagnosis during many interviews, but kept holding back. She proceeds to sing an impromptu version of the song that she wrote in recognition of the experience. To me, it felt as though, like many others, she experienced a second shock having felt that she’d reached a place of relative health safety, and I can’t imagine how that feels – it’s something many of us dread.
Kylie is clear that the experience has changed her in some ways, but that she also remains who she is, and is embracing whatever life still has to offer her.