Dannii Minogue: I would not be alive today if I had listened to nasty comments

The Australian singer and TV presenter said she was compared to her older sister Kylie in the press

Kylie and Dannii Minogue (Yui Mok/PA)

Former X Factor judge Dannii Minogue has said she would “not be alive” today if it were not for her resilience when dealing with “nasty” comments about her appearance.

The Australian singer and TV presenter, 53, said she was compared to her older sister Kylie in the press, and was made to feel that she should be as slim as her.

“The hardest time I had was not long after I arrived in the UK, and photographers were literally throwing themselves on the ground to get angles and shoot up your dress and your skirt,” she told the Happy Place podcast with Fearne Cotton.

“It was horrendous. So I had that, I was 19 when I arrived, I’m still a teenager.

“And then, not only to have all of that, all the monitors, all the press, all the feedback I was then compared to my sister, who’s (got a) completely different body shape, always has been our entire lives.

I wasn’t living up to her body, which at the time, fitted the standards of what the only body shape there was, slim.

“Now, there’s so much based around curves, that’s always been me, yet I was like a square trying to fit through a hole, still, do what I was doing, still evolve out of a teenager into a woman, on my own, at the other side of the world.”

Dannii, who was known for playing Emma Jackson in the hit television series Home And Away, released her debut single, Love And Kisses, aged 19 in 1990.

Kylie was launched to fame in the late 1980s as Charlene Mitchell on Australian soap Neighbours and went on to pursue a successful singing career with hits including Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.

Dannii said: “You read back how nasty the comments were, so, there were so many levels I was trying to negotiate and I had to keep reminding myself, if I wasn’t reading this or hearing it, do I get up in the morning and am I happy with myself? I am.

“And at the time, I was so mentally strong, and I’ve said this to my friends, I’m like, ‘I know that if I wasn’t mentally strong and I did have any kind of eating disorder, I would not be alive now.’

“That is fact. It was so brutal and it went on for years, but it did have a delayed effect later on.

Dannii Minogue attending the Bafta Television Awards 2023 (Yui Mok/PA)

“When I look back, you know that time to breathe and reflect, and I felt like an idiot, it’s like, ‘Why did you stay in that position where you allowed that to happen to you?’

“But it was the industry, it was what was normal, if you want this job as a pop singer, especially female pop singer in the 90s, this is what it looks like, and this is what it’s only ever going to look like, so it’s either your career or not.

“And I’m like, I’ve worked my entire life for this. I’ve moved halfway around the world. Am I gonna let these few comments get me?

“But like, looking back on it, I’m angry at myself, I’m mad, but I’m proud of myself.

“What else could you do? And you got through it, and you’re alive, and you’re really kind of a little bit confused, but, hey, if that’s as bad as it is, that’s alright.

“But, yeah, it got me years later, which is the best case scenario when I could deal with it. Thank God it didn’t take hold in any other shape at the time.”

The singer, who has had hits with Baby Love and Success, has also hosted reality dating shows I Kissed A Boy and I Kissed A Girl.