Let It Shine’s Dannii Minogue reveals the new singing contest has helped her to put a turbulent six years behind her after leaving The X Factor
AS Dannii Minogue shimmied on to the Let It Shine stage on Saturday, she was back where she belonged – on a judges’ panel on prime-time British TV.
Her return was a triumphant one — finally putting to bed a turbulent six years which have seen her survive a major break-up, a serious health scare and a torrid love affair scandal.
The megawatt beam on her face said it all.
Having admitted at the weekend to resorting to Botox to hide her inner sadness during her crisis years, she was finally smiling like she meant it.
Dannii revealed on Sunday: “I don’t think I’m the only woman to use Botox that way, except a lot of times I think it might be a subconscious thing — that you don’t want people to see how you really feel.
“But I’m genuinely happy now.”
After everything she’s been through, it is notable that Dannii has taken a job with the BBC, rather than returning to ITV where she launched her British TV career on X Factor.
Her new boss is Gary Barlow — not Simon Cowell, who she famously had a secret fling with while they were rival judges on the ITV show in 2007.
The truth about their affair was finally revealed in Tom Bower’s explosive 2012 biography, Sweet Revenge - leaving Dannii bruised and betrayed.
This is still a sticking point for the younger sister of megastar Kylie.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, she revealed: “I haven’t spoken to him and I have no idea what he’s said about the show.
“I have had zero contact with X Factor since I left. I haven’t seen it.”
Dannii, 45, was a staple of the talent show in its heyday from 2006 until 2010 and mentored winners Leon Jackson and Matt Cardle.
But she swapped the UK for her native Australia when her private life started to fall apart in 2011. She was suffering with a severe thyroid condition, had just given birth to son Ethan, now six, and was beginning to part ways with British model Kris Smith, her young lad’s dad.
The singer spent the best part of six years in Melbourne, taking a role on X Factor Australia.
Looking back, Dannii describes 2011 as “an awful time.”
She revealed this weekend: ‘I was getting thinner by the day and even when it was hot outside I was freezing cold. I was beside myself.
“But it was because my hair started coming out in clumps that I knew it was more than post-natal exhaustion, and so I went to have a blood test.”
The mum has been on medication for her thyroid condition ever since.
She explained: “It took time to start feeling OK, but I’m so much better.
“I tell any woman who has had a baby to get herself checked out, because you’re so hardwired to looking after your child that the last person you think about is yourself — and it can all go wrong very, very fast.”
Dannii’s life now revolves around Ethan and she quit the Aussie X Factor last year because her little boy was beginning his first year at school at home in Melbourne.
My hair started coming out in clumps
She told The Sun: “The start of school was a little tricky to navigate which is why I really wanted to be with him and help him through it. Some kids had come up to him in the playground and told him his mum’s famous. Of course he had no idea what that meant, so he said, ‘No she’s not, she’s really nice!’.
"He came home in tears saying, ‘Mummy, they’re saying you’re famous’, so there’s a lot to navigate. It’s hard for him to work out what’s going on.”"
But by the time Gary, 45, called about his new show to find a boyband for a Take That musical, she was itching for a role back in Blighty.
She explained: “I moved to Melbourne to live when I had Ethan because I needed to be around my family, I was a new mum and didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
“Now Ethan’s just started school so he’s getting really settled and it is time for me to get out there again in the UK. I’d been looking for things to do but I needed something where I could come to England and work for short bursts, but not full time like I was when I did X Factor.
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“I’ve been wanting to come back to the UK for ages. I was looking for something new, fresh and exciting. I wanted something full of positivity and light.”
Let It Shine is the BBC’s response to losing The Voice, which has been bought by ITV and also kicked off on Saturday night.
In the first ratings battle between the two, Dannii’s new home narrowly won, bagging a peak of 6.8million viewers — 400,000 more than its rival.
It is the proof Dannii needs that her move was a good one — and confirmation of her status as one of Britain’s best-loved reality judges.
She added: “I don’t think viewers will see a difference in me. Since I finished X Factor in the UK, I did three years of X Factor in Australia, so it feels more like a continuation for me, than a break or comeback.”
But there has been a change in public perception. Early on, Dannii was cast as the wild child to sister Kylie’s squeaky clean girl-next-door.
I can’t sleep if something is wrong with my sister
She had married and divorced before age 25 — to the son of a former Australian Prime Minister — posed for Playboy, dated a string of eligible bachelors and was briefly engaged to Formula One ace Jacques Villeneuve.
But her rollercoaster love life is a thing of the past, and for the past two years Dannii has been in a committed relationship with 43-year-old musician and record producer Adrian Newman.
And she insists that the rivalry with sister Kylie, 48, is pure fantasy.
She told a newspaper: “I’m often told by people that I’ve changed, but I never really changed, it’s just that I had such a bad reputation. It was a good story that I was this wild child who was jealous of her sister.
“All I do know is I have a sister — and a family — who I love very dearly. If there’s something wrong with my sister, I can’t even sleep at night and it’s the same with her about me.”
Dannii was instrumental in helping Kylie battle cancer after her diagnosis in 2005 aged just 37.
It’s these sort of experiences that she thinks have made her wiser — but also more cautious.
She said: “I’ve learned everything on the job. I think it’s harder as I get older too, I’m not as fearless because at the end of the day I have a family to look after now, it’s not just me, so I’m thinking, ‘God I have to be good at this, I can’t just be OK’.”
Just as well she is good at her new job — very good, in fact.
Gary, who shares the judging panel with Dannii, West End singer Amber Riley and former Spandau Ballet star Martin Kemp, said: “She is the ultimate trooper.
“She understands all sides of the business. She’s a good human being and she’s a Minogue. Enough said.”
The pair have history — they first met in the Nineties when they were both on Top Of The Pops, and got intimately acquainted very quickly.
Dannii recalled: “They told me there was a boyband a couple of doors down the corridor and they were getting their kit off for a wild photo shoot. I didn’t have a clue who they were so I ran down and they were all in the room loving every bit of attention, they were all topless, wearing codpieces and all oiled up, it was hilarious.”
But she added: “I think Gary’s in the best shape of his life as well. That’s why the girls in the audience can’t get enough of him — still!”
Talking of sex appeal, Dannii has certainly got her own back.
With her thyroid condition under control she has put meat back on her bones - which she says is “better than Botox in terms of looking good as you get older.”
There will be few people not pleased to see Dannii looking so sexy, happy and healthy again — except, perhaps, her Botox supplier.