{"id":682200,"date":"2026-05-20T03:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/682200\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T03:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:51:13","slug":"kylie-netflix-documentary-review-excellent-three-part-documentary-shares-singers-secret-second-battle-with-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/682200\/","title":{"rendered":"Kylie Netflix documentary review: Excellent three-part documentary shares singer\u2019s secret second battle with cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KarlSave<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

AAA<\/p>\n

Key pointsThree-part Netflix documentary is from the same team behind Beckham.Kylie Minogue reveals for the first time her cancer returned in 2021.She talks about how she felt \u201cprotected\u201d by former boyfriend Michael Hutchence.\u00a0Minogue talks about her failed attempts to conceive via IVF.Kylie \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

The big reveal in Kylie, the excellent three-part documentary about Kylie Minogue<\/a> from the team behind Beckham<\/a>, comes right at the end. In 2021, the cancer she had first battled 16 years earlier came back.<\/p>\n

The first time round, her health crisis played out<\/a> in the full glare of the world\u2019s media while she was camped out at her parents\u2019 house in Melbourne, before retreating to the relative anonymity of Paris for chemo. The second time, Minogue kept the news very much to herself \u2013 until now.<\/p>\n

\"KylieKylie Minogue in the Netflix documentary, in which she reveals her cancer returned in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel obliged to tell the world,\u201d she says in a teary session with her songwriting collaborators in London in the final episode of the series. \u201cAnd actually, I couldn\u2019t at the time because I was just a shell of a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

She reveals that even while she was basking in the renewed visibility and success spawned by Padam Padam<\/a> in 2023 \u2013 the song went on to win her a Grammy and set up a Las Vegas residency \u2013 she was struggling to find the words to talk about what she was going through, \u201cso I can let go of it\u201d. It was only when she sat down with her songwriting partners Gez O\u2019Connell, Biff Stannard and Duck Blackwell and wrote Story, the final track on her 2023 album Tension<\/a>, that she was able to give her sorrow form.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI had a secret that I kept to myself, yeah,\u201d she sings shakily with the men as she finally makes public the sentiment behind the lyrics. \u201cI had a one-way ticket that was going nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Story soon enough resolves into an upbeat dance number; that\u2019s the Minogue way. As Nick Cave says of his fellow Australian, his duet partner on 1995\u2019s murder ballad Where the Wild Roses Grow<\/a>, \u201cwhat the world loves about Kylie is that she really went through something \u2026 that\u2019s the sort of definition of joy in a way, which is the capacity to be able to rise out of a certain suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of that across the three hours of Kylie \u2013 much of it about heartbreak<\/a> and her often brutal treatment at the hands of critics who saw her rise as too fast, too easy and too lacking in substance. But it\u2019s not hard to imagine that for its subject the greatest suffering lay in having to submit to the scrutiny (albeit friendly) of the filmmakers.<\/p>\n

Minogue is a woman who has lived much of her life for the past 40 years in the public eye, but she\u2019s also intensely private \u2013 and that tension between what\u2019s revealed and what must remain hidden is at the heart of this fascinating, occasionally frustrating, but ultimately rewarding exercise.<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Donovan, Kylie Minogue and Dannii Minogue at the launch of the Netflix documentary in London.John Phillips\/Getty Images for Netflix<\/p>\n

\u201cI am my own worst enemy,\u201d she says towards the end, as she addresses the possibility that she might step away from the spotlight in favour of a quiet life. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018Go away everyone. Where is everyone?\u2019 Maximum three days between those two phrases. Sometimes just a few hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are times here when she acknowledges her reluctance to open up, and others when she admits it\u2019s not as hard as she feared it would be. By the end you feel we\u2019ve caught at least a glimpse of the real Kylie: self-deprecating but rightly proud of what she\u2019s achieved; blessed by good fortune and tormented by her critics because of it; boundlessly positive but no stranger to disappointment. It\u2019s the Impossible Princess as highly probable human being, and it\u2019s utterly compelling.<\/p>\n

She talks about her failed attempts to conceive via IVF following her battle with the cancer she was diagnosed with at age 36. It\u2019s not the first time she\u2019s mentioned it, but the pain of not becoming the mother she always imagined she would be is absolutely palpable.<\/p>\n

She talks about the ambition that took her to London and ultimately derailed her first big love affair, with her Neighbours co-star Jason Donovan. He talks about it, too, and it\u2019s clear the pain of that long-ago break-up still burns in him.<\/p>\n

\"ButBut INXS frontman Michael Hutchence was her great love. Netflix<\/p>\n

She talks about her romance with Michael Hutchence, and this time it\u2019s she who still carries the torch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might seem disproportionate, the emotion and the memories I have with him and with that time,\u201d she says of the late INXS singer, whom she dated for about 18 months in her early 20s. \u201cBut I just felt protected and nurtured and valued and believed in \u2026 he really didn\u2019t want me to be someone else for him at all. He was encouraging me to discover me.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are glimpses of Kylie in rehearsal, in the studio, and of course on stage. She\u2019s tiny, but in concert \u2013 with costumes, dancers, big production \u2013 she\u2019s larger than life. Up close and personal, she\u2019s still that kid we see in the archival footage and photos dreaming of a career on stage, and working damned hard to make it reality.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot she doesn\u2019t say \u2013 about the other big relationships in her life, or the sexism of the media, or ageism in the business \u2013 but ultimately Kylie serves as a celebration of the healing power and, yes, the validity, of pop music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might not be blessed with a voice from the heavens,\u201d Minogue says at one point. \u201c[But] I don\u2019t have anyone else\u2019s voice. What I have is my voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n

Kylie is now streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n

Want more TV? We\u2019ve got you.Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-682200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}