Kylie: Breakdown forced me to slow down
Chart-topper Kylie Minogue has revealed how a nervous breakdown forced her to slow down her hectic workload.
The singer said the experience taught her she had to say “no” to constant rounds of promotional duties.
In a BBC Radio 2 interview to be broadcast tomorrow, she says her father advised her she needed to make more time for herself.
Minogue – at number one for the seventh time with sultry single Slow – said she was making more time to see boyfriend Olivier Martinez.
“I did say work is easy, life can be hard. But now I’m actually making a concerted effort to give myself breaks, to see my boyfriend, to make time for life whereas before ... I can’t even put it into words.
“There was so much going on and because I like to think that I’m quite strong, and have a strong constitution and yes, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it, learning to say no has been very difficult, you know.
“I remember my dad saying to me years ago, when I had a small nervous breakdown, in Australia: ‘Darling, you know you turn up to work and that’s what you are employed for and that’s what you do – but you don’t have to say yes to everything’.
“This style of work/living has been going for years and years and years and I’ve always been working.”
“It’s part of my life and part of my nature. But no, now I do say “no”, and you know what? The world doesn’t cave in, nothing terrible happens, I just have a little bit more time for life.”
It is thought to be the first time Minogue has mentioned a breakdown.
Last year she took a break in her native Australia after splitting from boyfriend James Gooding. But Gooding denied a newspaper report that it was a breakdown.
Pop princess Minogue, 35, overtook Madonna to become the solo female star who has enjoyed the longest span as a UK chart-topper yesterday.
The gap between her latest chart-topper and her first, I Should Be So Lucky, is 15 years and nine months .
Madonna managed a span of 15 years and one month between her first number one Into The Groove and her last Music.
Minogue is launching her new album Body Language on Saturday with a one-off show at London’s Carling Apollo in Hammersmith. The album is out two days later.
