The celebrated singer, 57, has just opened up about her rise to global stardom in new Netflix documentary show Kylie. Tracking her career from soap star to chart-topper, the series features interviews with those closest to the Australian celebrity.
However, her brother Brendan only makes a brief appearance in the show. In Episode 1, Kylie’s brother is shown during a scene where the Minogues gather around for a bonfire. Fans will also spot her sister Dannii, mum Carol, dad Ronald in the segment.
So who exactly is the mysterious Minogue sibling?
Who is Kylie Minogue’s little-known brother?
Kylie’s younger brother is 55-year-old camera operator Brendan Minogue.
He prefers to stay out of the spotlight but has been spotted in his sister’s other projects, including the 2001 special An Audience with Kylie Minogue.
While little is known about the Minogue brother, it seems the three siblings shared a positive childhood.
In her Netflix show, Kylie reflects on their upbringing fondly. “I was raised without any putdowns, without ever hearing ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that,'” she explains. “We were just encouraged to do what we loved.”
The singer has also cited Brendan as part of her solid support system. In an interview with the BBC, she confessed: “When it’s not going well, that’s who I turn to – Mum, Dad, my brother and my sister.”
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She revealed in the same interview that Brendan taught her a stress-relief technique that was crucial during the start of her career.
It’s called the foofer valve, she said, adding: “When the emotion has got to come out, or you’ve got to have a big cry or a moan, you let out a noise, tsssssh, like a kettle letting off steam, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I feel so much better’.”
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As well as a glimpse into her family life, the three-part Netflix doc offers insight into the pop icon’s decorated career.
A synopsis teases: “Featuring footage from home movies, personal photographs, and new interviews with Kylie herself, the documentary shows the woman behind the hits. It examines how she’s faced public scrutiny, personal loss, and illness with grit and grace, earning respect far beyond her own fandom.”
Kylie Minogue tried to have children via IVF and battled breast cancer for a second time in 2021Credit: GettyThe pop star uses her docuseries to speak about struggling to conceive after her fight with cancer in 2005Credit: Netflix
Kylie, 57, says in the show, which is out today: “It was always with such a thread of hope but I couldn’t not try.
“I did try IVF a number of times. If it had happened it would have been just shy of a miracle. But it didn’t work out that way.”
Poignantly, she adds: “One can’t help but wonder what it would have been like.”
Kylie’s singer sister Dannii, 54, has one son, as does her brother Brendan, 55.
Dannii said of Kylie: “She is amazing with kids. Just naturally incredible. She is amazing with her nephews.
“I never saw myself being a parent and she always did. And that is heartbreaking.”
The lyrics of Kylie’s 2012 song Flower dealt with the pain of not having children.
It includes the line: “Distant child my flower, are you blowing in the breeze?”
Brave Kylie, 57, pictured with her singer sister Dannii, 54Credit: GettyKylie, above on stage in 2025, now has the all-clear and hopes to encourage women to go for early screeningsCredit: Getty
In another revelation, Kylie said she secretly battled cancer for a second time after being diagnosed with primary breast cancer in early 2021.
Kylie said: “I was able to keep it to myself and go through that year.
“I didn’t feel obliged to tell the world and actually I just couldn’t at the time as I was just a shell of a person.
“I didn’t want to leave the house again at one point.
“Thankfully I got through it again, and all is well.”
Kylie now has the all-clear and hopes that speaking out will encourage women to go for early screenings.
She said: “I know there will be someone out there who will benefit from a gentle reminder to do their check-ups.”
FOR almost four decades, Kylie Minogue has soundtracked our lives with anthems of love, joy and heartbreak.
While her own personal life has seen both stellar highs and crushing lows — including failed romances, and cancer — she has kept calm and carried on, and on, then on some more.
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Kylie Minogue goes hell for leather in a shoot for the new Netflix series landing on WednesdayCredit: Copyright DarenoteKylie telling all for the docu-seriesCredit: PA
As for those gold hotpants from her 2000 video for disco belter Spinning Around, they brightened up all our lives, to the point they are now under lock and key in a museum.
But as Kylie, 57, sits down with me for her only newspaper chat ahead of her self-titled Netflix docuseries that airs on Wednesday, she insists she is just like the rest of us when heartbroken.
In the TV tell-all, she recalls her devastating 1991 split from the late INXS frontman, Aussie Michael Hutchence, after a passionate two-year romance — and how she slept on a pal’s sofa in Paris while unable to face the couple’s old stomping grounds in Oz and the UK.
She had previously also dated Aussie actor-singer Jason Donovan — and when I ask if she’s ever “gone full Bridget Jones”, liked the unlucky-in-love soul of movie fame, she swiftly replies: “Oh, 100 per cent.
“I’ve had different relationships that all shaped me. Of course, I talk about Michael. I’ve also got Jason Donovan, who speaks so amazingly in the documentary.”
During the Netflix special, Kylie recalls how she struggled post-Hutchence — and tells viewers: “I didn’t know where to go or what to do. I knew I didn’t want to be in London and I didn’t want to be in Australia, so I went to Paris.
“I remember having a tiny English to-French dictionary. I didn’t know anyone, but had two numbers on a bit of paper. One of those was a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of mine.
“She lived with a girl called Kat, who is now my oldest, best girlfriend. I moved into her apartment, got a sleeping bag and slept on the sofa. I was feeling heartbroken.”
The star in her iconic gold hotpants in 2000Credit: ScopeAussie Kylie wows in Can’t Get You Out Of My Head video in 2001
Keen not to sugarcoat her life for Netflix, Kylie let director Michael Harte retain total creative control, even when she may have liked some bits left on the cutting-room floor.
In one episode, her former Neighbours co-star Jason remembers the moment Kylie left him for rocker Michael — explaining how they met him after an INXS gig before Jason watched the pair disappear into a hotel bathroom together.
Jason admits: “He wasn’t interested in me. I could sniff that a mile away. And she disappeared with him into the bathroom, which is fine. You know, we’re grown-ups.”
Reflecting on that evening, Kylie adds: “After the gig, Jason and I were invited back to the after-party. I would have been a bit like, ‘How did we get here?’ We were just talking about singer stuff.”
Kylie has been single since splitting from GQ magazine boss Paul Solomons in 2023, and insists she does not need a man to feel complete.
When I ask if she is happy, All The Lovers singer Kylie replies with a smile: “I’m super-happy, yeah.”
She told the Sunday Times’ Style magazine yesterday: “I don’t have a boyfriend. I was in a relationship, and when that ended, I realised I was OK on my own. I’m getting pickier. Narcissists . . . I’ve dated one and I’m grateful I now have that knowledge. That’s my red-hot ‘no’.”
Similarly, when Kylie and I last chatted, in October 2024, the I Should Be So Lucky singer told me: “There’s no one significant in my life and I feel content. I feel like this is my destiny right now.”
But she STILL fiercely believes in love — and enjoys watching it bloom for others.
We first met in 2023 while she was promoting 16th album Tension. I was shamelessly chasing a boy and, on my way to her Claridge’s hotel suite, bought a bottle of Kylie Prosecco for her to sign for him.
After our chat, she agreed, writing his name on the bottle and wishing me luck in my romantic pursuit. The next summer, he was my boyfriend.
During a brief meeting in 2024, at the British Summer Time festival in London’s Hyde Park, I thanked her for the part she had played. “See, I’ve still got it!” she happily told her team, punching the air.
Neighbours stars Kylie and Jason in 1988Credit: RexSinger with Hutchence at the Dick Tracy film premiere in London in 1990Credit: Rex Features
But by the time we crossed paths in May 2025, outside her dressing room as she played London’s 02 Arena for her Tension world tour, I was single once more.
I mentioned I was seeing her show again the next night and bringing my ex. “Ooh, what’s the goss?” Kylie asked. Laughing awkwardly, I admitted I wished we were still together.
Meanwhile, in episode two of her Netflix series Kylie wells up as she admits she has been searching for a love like she shared with Michael ever since their 1991 breakup.
Kylie says to camera: “I haven’t quite got it. I’ve probably been looking for something like that ever since.
“He was a first for so many things and one was heartbreak. I was devastated. He was a rock star, which doesn’t just mean that he needs many women in his life, but he needed to go where he needed to go. But I know from people in his circle that he talked of me and thought of me. We were good together.”
Shrugging off the emotion, Kylie adds: “Shoulda, woulda, coulda — whatever. But it was an amazing time. The memories make me feel good, even if I’m getting teary. It was good to have someone, to feel like you were a good team. I’m fortunate. The emotion and the memories I have with that time — I just felt protected, nurtured, valued, and believed in.”
Recalling Michael’s funeral in 1997 in Sydney, after he died at just 37, Kylie says: “At the church it was overwhelming, the outpouring of love for him. I felt him saying, ‘It’s OK. It will be OK’. I always feel he’s with me.”
But as we chat, Kylie wishes she had “stressed less” over the course of her career, and she admits she sometimes “didn’t manage it well”.
I am also relieved that — like me when love’s course goes awry — this global superstar so indentifies with Bridget Jones, as played in the films by Renee Zellweger.
In the series’ first film, Bridget Jones’s Diary, in 2001, the pyjama-clad protagonist has break-up blues as she clutches a bottle of wine and belts out power ballad All By Myself.
Although Kylie is now a superstar, she got there through steadfast resilience — proving critics wrong time and time againCredit: NETFLIXKylie at Michael Hutchence’s funeral in 1997Credit: Reuters
I doubt Kylie’s go-to heartbreak fixes are the same as my budget pairing — a £4.99 supermarket Pinot Grigio and Cadbury popping-candy chocolate bar. But I do recommend them, Kylie.
Of course, the other bombshell in Kylie’s life came at just 36 when, in 2005, she was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.
She had to pull out of a Glastonbury set and part of her Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour to undergo a lumpectomy as well as chemotherapy. The next year she was in remission and given the all-clear.
But Kylie tells Netflix viewers: “I felt removed from my body. I was so scared of what was ahead of me.” Her singer sister Dannii adds: “We didn’t know, if she was ever going to be well again.”
It is hard to believe, though, how she has kept much of her off-stage life little known about.
When I put this to her, she nods and says: “It’s like, is there a monster under the bed? You build up this fear of telling.”
But she adds: “There’s enough behind me, and in front of me, that now has made it a good time. And what am I so scared of? It’s been a good exercise to have a look back at life, and find acceptance.”
In the docuseries, Kylie admits she was “riddled with self-doubt and anxiety” — and that those feelings still rear their head.
Minogue’s sexy gold hot pants are part of a museum collection in Melbourne, AustraliaCredit: instagram/kylieminogueHimaker with The Sun’s Jack HardwickCredit: Supplied
Kylie, who wrapped up her 66-date Tension tour last year, tells me: “I still have anxiety and self-doubt. No, not all the time, but a healthy amount is good.
“I know what I’m doing more now, which is satisfying. There’s definitely moments but that doesn’t permeate through.”
Although Kylie is now a superstar, she got there through steadfast resilience — proving critics wrong time and time again.
Her decision to quit Aussie soap Neighbours at the height of its success — when 24 million daily viewers was commonplace — was deemed by many as crazy.
Indeed, so popular was the soap that when Princess Diana missed just two episodes, she called up the BBC to ask after recordings.
Kylie’s sixth studio album, 1997’s Impossible Princess, was savaged so brutally by critics that radio stations refused to play her singles. A billboard even told the world Kylie was “over”.
Yet nearly three decades later, the 5ft powerhouse has never been more beloved. In December, she landed her eighth UK No1 single, ,and her first festive chart-topper, with Xmas.
A seasoned pro with interviews, Kylie usually has a slick answer ready for any question. But when I ask what she would say to her younger self, she takes her time before replying: “I still don’t know what’s ahead of me now — but I especially didn’t at 16.”
During the Netflix series, Kylie hits back at a suggestion she might be ready to slow down soon.
“Tell that to Cher and Barbra [Streisand]” she quips.
Both are plenty older than her — Cher recently turned 79 and Barbra 84 — and Cher, in particular, is still dusting off her suspenders and stockings for performances.
So, can we expect to see Kylie still doing The Locco-Motion at 80?
Beaming, she replies: “With all my heart, I hope so, yes.
“But how I’ve done this is, I am not a planner, I like to be fluid. I have a loose idea, I know what I want to do — but, yeah, maybe next week or this month.”
But while Kylie may still be up on stage in 2049, her famed gold hotpants will not. They are in a museum in Melbourne, Australia — but Kylie beams at my idea they belong in the Louvre museum in Paris, with the Mona Lisa painting.
Kylie says of the hotpants: “That would be amazing. But I bought them for 50p — my girlfriend found them in a secondhand store. I wore them quite rigorously so they’re fragile and the museum have said they have got to stay flat. They are in preservation mode.”
I also ask if “Kylie the pop star” ever feels like “Kylie the person” is forgotten.
But she feels fans want her to be both, adding of time on stage: “It’s a place for me to harness everything I’ve worked for and that I feel, and be expressive.”
The word “icon” is overused, but when I tell Kylie she is one, she replies simply: “I try.”
KYLIE MINOGUE and Jason Donovan’s romance defined a generation, and the couple broke hearts around the world when they split in 1989.
Now fans are set for a nostalgia overload as private footage of their time together has been unearthed.
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Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan’s romance defined a generation, and the couple broke hearts around the world when they split in 1989Credit: NetflixIt will be shown in Kylie’s new three-part Netflix series, which is set to be released on May 20Credit: Getty
It will be shown in Kylie’s new three-part Netflix series, which is set to be released on May 20.
The self-shot footage includes videos of the couple on holiday together before Kylie made it big as a pop star.
The trailer for Kylie Minogue’s new Netflix documentary has finally launched, leaving fans emotional over the singer’s journey
Kylie official trailer for inspiring documentary
Fans have reacted with delight to a trailer for the new Netflix series about Kylie Minogue, in which she shares her own home movies and personal photographs for the first time. She is also seen close to tears talking about her cancer battle saying: “I was so scared of what was ahead of me.”
The actress and singer, 57, who allowed the cameras to follow her for a three-part documentary, teases at the start of the trailer: “They’re convincing me to let you in.”
One fan gushed: “She is everything that is right with the world, an inspiration, an icon.” While another agreed: “I’ve been a fan since she was in Neighbours and followed her ever since. This will be an emotional journey for all her true fans, can’t wait!”
The “intimate” films, released on May 20, will show how she has successfully reinvented herself many times, selling 80 million records along the way. There are clips of the Aussie soap star turned pop princess winning a Grammy and being chased down the street by fans shouting, “I love you Kylie.”
Talking about being photographed and filmed, she says: “I love the feeling around the shot. That feeling of freedom. I hate being boxed in.” And of her long and recording career, she declares: “Life makes sense to me on stage.” Hinting that she is a long way from hanging up her microphone, she adds: “I don’t know where we’re going. There’s certainly no end.”
In other clips she is seen laughing in black and white snaps with her former lover Michael Hutchence and also hanging out with Jason Donovan, her co-star in Neighbours.
In one clip from British TV, former daytime favourite Anne Diamond is seen asking her, in a slightly snippy tone: “When you started out, did you mean to be an actor or a singer?”
She admits to feeling “frustrated” by headlines labelling her the “singing budgie” and calling her “awful”, “mechanistic”, “talentless” and “terrible”. One scene shows her with her head in her hands on the edge of the stage as someone enquires” “How are you feeling? But in other moment, looking very happy, she declares: “I can’t actually speak just yet.”
Of her battle with breast cancer 21 years ago in 2005, when she was 36, Kylie admits: “I was so scared of what was ahead of me… f***!” Younger sister Dannii battles tears as she says: “We didn’t know if she was ever going to be well again. But I just wanted to be with my sister. Music kept us going.” One shocked fan reacted: “Almost 40 years in and the first time I’ve heard her swear! She is pure perfection.”
The pals that share their thoughts include Donovan, singer Nick Cave and hit-maker Pete Waterman, who put her on the path to superstardom all those years ago. Cave, her close friend with whom she recorded Where the Wild Roses Grow in 1995, explains: “Kylie is this force. It’s all outward. Giving.”
The films, from BAFTA Award-winner Michael Harte, will attempt to show viewers the woman behind the hits, focusing on “how she has faced public scrutiny, personal loss and illness with grit and grace”.