Kylie Minogue wrote heartbreaking letter to future child following IVF struggle
Warning: This article contains discussion of fertility issues which some readers may find distressing.
Kylie Minogue has shared the letter she wrote to a potential future child while she was going through IVF treatment, following her first cancer diagnosis in 2005.
The 57-year-old pop singer emotionally opened up on struggles she’s never spoken about before during her three-part Netflix documentary, Kylie, which dropped on Wednesday (20 May).
She detailed both of her cancer battles, the second of which she kept out of the public eye until now.
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Kylie was previously diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in May 2005, aged 36, which prompted her to undergo a lumpectomy and chemotherapy in Paris.
Then, in the new TV series, she revealed that she’d secretly battled cancer for a second time in 2021, and ‘got through it, again,’ this time without going public with the news.
The singer also shared that she postponed treatment following her first diagnosis, as she was undergoing ‘numerous’ rounds of IVF, with the hopes of welcoming a child. Heartbreakingly, though, it didn’t work out.
In a particularly raw moment in the documentary, she shared the poignant letter she wrote to her future child while she was going through IVF.
It read: “Distant child, my flower, are you blowing in the breeze? Can you feel me as I breathe life into you?
“Wrapped in a blanket of hope, asleep in a bed of dreams, my step into eternity is not what it might have been, or not at all, for who knows which way the wind is going to blow.”
Opening up on that time in her life, Kylie said: “There's so much more to cancer than you had it, you got through it, and you’re fine - or fine for now. I was 36 when I got my diagnosis, so already it's - you need to be thinking about children."
She added, "I did try. I even postponed my chemotherapy to try, which was quite scary at the time because you just want it out. Gone. I want to feel safe, I don’t want this.
"But yeah, I did try a few times with IVF, always it was with such a thread of hope."
Kylie continued: "But I couldn't not try. If it had happened, it would have been just shy of a miracle. But it didn't work out that way. One can't help but wonder what it would have been like - and I'm so close to my family. But it wasn't my path, so that was what I was writing about. “
“Even if you didn't come to be, you're somewhere; we all become something, even if it's ash, and we become something else. So I was kind of hopeful and realistic at the same time.”
Kylie's sister Dannii Minogue also spoke about her sister's fertility struggles during the Netflix documentary, admitting that she never pictured herself as a parent, but Kylie did.
Danni who shares her son, Ethan, 15, with her ex Kris Smith, said: "I never saw myself being a parent, and she [Kylie] always did, and that is just heartbreaking.'
If you are worried about infertility, you can visit the NHS site for more information here. Or for free, impartial support, call Fertility Network UK on 0121 323 5025 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, or 07816 086694 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, between 10am and 4pm.
Topics: Netflix, Cancer, Celebrity, Documentaries
Madison Burgess