"Cancer turned me into a shadow." Kylie Minogue admitted she suffered a cancer relapse.

57-year-old singer Kylie Minogue revealed that five years ago she had a relapse of breast cancer, which prevented her from becoming a mother.

"My second cancer diagnosis was in 2021. I managed to keep it private and get through the year without the attention that the first time," the singer admitted in the Netflix documentary series Kylie about herself.

Minogue was first diagnosed with cancer in 2005. At the time, the singer was forced to cut short her concert tour and confide in her fans that she would have to temporarily put her music career on hold. Even Australian Prime Minister John Howard spoke out in support of Minogue.

Minogue went on to explain why she couldn't have a child, even though she dreamed of it: "I was 36 when I was first diagnosed, and that was when I had to think about having children. After chemotherapy, I tried several times to get pregnant through IVF, each time with a little hope. I couldn't not try. If it had happened, it would have been almost a miracle. But it didn't work out that way."

The singer even read a letter she wrote for her future child during her IVF attempts: "Distant child, my flower, do you sway in the wind? Do you feel me as I try to breathe life into you?"

Minogue admitted she struggled to cope with the inability to become a mother. The singer's sister, Dannii Minogue, said on the show, "I never imagined myself as a mother, and I have children, but she always did, and it's just heartbreaking."

The singer also shared how she dealt with cancer for the second time: "Cancer turned me into a shadow of a person. I was trying to find the right moment to say it. And I really just wanted to talk about what happened, to let it go."

As a reminder, Kylie Minogue was one of the most famous singers of the '80s and '90s. In the '80s, the singer dated actor Jason Donovan and singer Michael Hutchence. Then, from 2018 to 2023, the singer had an affair with GQ creative director Paul Solomons. The couple was even engaged, but Minogue left Solomons during wedding preparations.

Photo: Still from the trailer for the documentary series Kylie/Netflix, John Phillips/Getty Images