Kylie Minogue Doc Series Invites Us To Come Into Her World

Before there was Kylie Jenner, there was Kylie Minogue and, in some circles, there remains only one true Kylie. With a career spanning more than four decades and tens of millions of record sales under her belt, Minogue is one of pop music’s most enduring icons and most resilient survivors. Now, the three-part Netflix docuseries KYLIE traces her journey from Aussie soap star to dance floor diva. Featuring new interviews with key players like sister Danni Minogue, former costar and ex-boyfriend Jason Donovan, record producer Pete Waterman, longtime friend and fellow singer Nick Cave, and Kylie herself, KYLIE offers an intimate and unfiltered look at the pint-sized pop princess behind the hits and the megawatt smile.

Here are 12 things we learned from KYLIE.

She was a television superstar first 

This is not news. Any fan of Minogue knows her early lore as an actress – she starred as Charlene the Australian soap opera, Neighbours beginning in 1986 – but what North American fans, particularly younger ones, might not know is just how popular the show, and Minogue, was in Australia and the UK. At one point the show was pulling in 24 million viewers per episode, kids were skipping school to watch the show, and Princess Diana was among the show’s fans, even ringing up the BBC when she missed two episodes.

She had A romance with her Neighbours costar

On Neighbours, Minogue co-starred alongside actor Jason Donovan who played her character Charlene’s love interest, Scott. The romance spilled off screen and the couple dated in real life – until, that is, she met a certain frontman of an Australian mega band – more on that later. Minogue and Donovan remain on good terms all these years later, though. He appears in the Netflix docuseries and he also attended the KYLIE premiere and posed on the red carpet with her. 

She caught flack for venturing from acting to singing

Minogue famously left Neighbours in 1988 to focus on her singing career. In our current world, where most celebrities are multi-hyphenates who dabble in singing, acting, and other ventures with varying degrees of success, it’s hard to imagine a time when working in both mediums was considered unusual. But the media at the time seemed positively perplexed by the move. “I don’t like to be trapped in anything,” Minogue tells the doc. “I like to have fluidity.” She lists Dolly Parton, Cher, and Barbra Streisand as women who paved the way and straddled both worlds.

Her first music producer had no idea who she was

After moving to London at 19 to focus on her music, Minogue was paired with producer Pete Waterman whose record label PWL had produced artists like Bananarama and Rick Astley. While Minogue was already a huge television star, Waterman had no idea who she was, telling the doc he was “gobsmacked” when he found out she was a superstar. “I had no idea how big she was,” he says. Minogue, of course, was poised to get even bigger. “I had no idea that I was about to go over the precipice into a different world,” she tells the doc.

She was widely criticized in her early years 

While Minogue is widely regarded as an icon of pop and dance music, she wasn’t always treated that way by the press. While she achieved early success with her 1987 track, “I Should Be So Lucky” off her hit debut album, Kylie, she wasn’t immune to criticism.  In fact, the media was downright mean to her in the early days. The press referred to her as “mediocre,” “boring,” “banal, “ordinary,” called her “the singing budgie” and “a human crocheted scarf.” 

Michael Hutchence mesmerized her 

I mean, who didn’t Michael Hutchence mesmerize? Minogue was still dating Jason Donovan when they were invited to attend an INXS show in Sydney. The couple was invited to an afterparty where Donovan claims Minogue and Hutchence disappeared together into a bathroom. “I could tell something wasn’t right,” he tells the doc.” I could tell. I could smell it.” Minogue and Hutchence famously went on to date and Minogue says “there was concern from my team” that Hutchence was “too bad” for her “goody two shoes” image. Minogue says Hutchence was “hilarious and cultured and tender” while she was “just devilish enough.” The couple broke up after two years together. “He was my first in so many ways and one of those firsts was heartbreak,” she tells the doc. “It was definitely an amazing point in time and I’ve probably been looking for something like that ever since and haven’t got it.”

She was inspired by drag queens 

After finding out there were “Kylie Nights” at a local drag bar, Minogue decided to check it out. “I ended up on stage at this drag bar and I felt like the least Kylie there,” she tells the doc. “I gotta step it up,” she says. “I gotta get some lashes and some eyeliner.” Minogue was inspired to change up her look and pursue a more risqué image. “She went from ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ to Kylie the diva in one fell swoop,” recalls her former record producer Waterman. Media at the time criticized her for the change up saying things like “Mary Poppins has turned into a hooker,” and that Minogue “went from the girl next door to the girl next door who has been around the block.”

Michael Hutchence’s death still hits hard 

The world was shocked when, in 1997, at just 37 years old, Michael Hutchence died of an apparent suicide. Nearly 30 years later, Minogue still gets choked up talking about his passing. 

“I remember being at the church and it was overwhelming,” she says of attending his funeral service, “the outpouring of love for him.” Minogue says she continues to feel his presence to this day. “I always feel he’s with me which is kinda crazy but I do…he was encouraging me to be me,” she says before exclaiming ‘Fuck!” as she holds back tears. 

She credits Nick Cave with her return to the dance floor

After initial success, Minogue tried experimenting with her sound which didn’t always hit with fans. The singer was at a career crossroads when, in 1995, she went way off script by collaborating with fellow Aussie singer Nick Cave, frontman of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. Cave was known for his deep baritone and dark lyrics about death, violence, and murder – a major juxtaposition from Minogue’s pop vibe. “I just always liked her,” Cave tells the doc. “There was something that I recognized in her that I responded to,” he says. “She had everything but credibility and I looked at her because I had credibility and not much else.”

The pair collaborated on the 1995 song “Where the Wild Roses Grow” on The Bad Seeds’ album, Murder Ballads. The unlikely pairing reached the top 10 in several countries and won three ARIA Awards, Australia’s equivalent to the Grammys, in 1996. After their genre-defying duet, Cave encouraged Minogue to return to her dance floor/pop roots. “You’ve got the coolest guy on the planet saying where’s the pop tunes,” she says. “Right. Let’s get the jet packs on and let’s get back to the dance floor.” What followed was Kylie’s most successful era spawning hits like “Spinning Around,” “Can’ t Get You Out of My Head,” and “Love at First Sight.”

She watched Glastonbury 2005 from bed

After her massive comeback and string of hits in the early aughts, Minogue was invited to headline the Pyramid stage at England’s massive Glastonbury Festival in 2005 – a rare invitation at the time for a pop artist as Glastonbury generally featured rock acts and bands. “It was huge and I was ready for it,” she tells the doc. “Life was good.” Until, of course, Minogue was famously diagnosed with breast cancer, forcing her to cancel her world tour and pull out of Glastonbury. Coldplay, who did take the festival stage that year, paid tribute to Minogue by covering her massive hit “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and dedicating their song “Fix You” to her. “I watched Glastonbury from my bedroom with a lot of emotion,” she tells the doc. “There I was, just weeping.” Minogue eventually made it to the Glastonbury stage in 2019 where, in a full circle moment, she and Chris Martin dueted on “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.”

She dreamed of motherhood

Kylie Minogue was 36-years-old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and she tells the doc she delayed chemotherapy so she could undergo fertility treatments in an effort to have a baby, “which is quite scary because you just want it out, gone. I want to feel safe, I don’t want this,” she says. Minogue underwent IVF attempts several times over the years without success, “always with such a thread of hope but I couldn’t not try,” she says. “I was hopeful, but realistic at the same time.” Motherhood was obviously important to Minogue but she seems to have found peace with her situation saying, “I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like because I’m so close to my family but it wasn’t my path.” Relatedly, can the media please refrain from asking women about their reproductive journeys? The number of reporters in the doc asking Minogue over the years about whether she plans to have children is nothing short of uncomfortable. This is nobody’s business! 

She had a second battle with cancer

Towards the end of the final episode of KYLIE, the singer reveals her 2005 cancer bout was her first, but not her last. She was diagnosed a second time in 2021 but unlike her first battle which was super public and widely publicized (paparazzi were literally camped outside her parents’ house as she was convalescing) she kept this one private. “I didn’t feel obliged to tell the world and actually at the time, I couldn’t because I was just a shell of a person,” she says. “I would sit through interviews and every opportunity I thought now’s the time but I kept it to myself,” she adds. “Thankfully I got through it again and all is well.”

The three-part KYLIE docuseries is now streaming on Netflix.

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• Watch the trailer for Netflix’s 3-part KYLIE documentary