It’s a sad reality that women in the limelight are often stacked up against each other – and that especially goes if you’re siblings. This week, Dannii Minogue opened up about the constant comparisons between her and Kylie Minogue over the years, which unkindly focused on their bodies.

‘I’ve said this to my friends: “I know that, if I wasn’t mentally strong and I did have any kind of eating disorder or something, I wouldn’t be alive now.” That is fact. It was so brutal, and it went on for years,’ she said on Fearne Cotton’s The Happy Place podcast. ‘I was compared to my sister, who’s always had a completely different body shape our entire lives.’

She continued: ‘‘I wasn’t living up to her body, which at the time, fitted the standards of what the only body shape there was, slim,’ explained Dannii. ‘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 went on to explain how these comparisons began early on, thanks to their similar career trajectories. Dannii was well known for playing Emma Jackson in the TV series Home and Away, and her fame increased when she released her debut single in 1990 aged 19. Meanwhile, Kylie shot to fame Kylie thanks to hit songs like I Should Be So Lucky and Spinning Around after starring as Charlene in Neighbours.

‘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 said. ‘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.’

 In the 90s and noughties, size zero became the ideal thanks to waif-like aesthetic. Models such as Kate Moss and Gisele Bündchen became the faces of the size zero ideal.

‘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?”’, she said, ‘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.’

This isn’t the first time Dannii has spoken out about the body comparisons between her and Kylie. ‘There was a lot of time when I first came to the UK when it was like, I was the brunt of the joke for a lot of people – “Kylie’s better, you are the fat ugly sister of Kylie, not as successful,” and whatever,’ she said on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast In 2023. ‘It was really harsh, the headlines that were written back then. I’ve had friends that have really battled with their body and their weight and their confidence.’

In 2007, Dannii joined the X-Factor as a judge alongside Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne, but found her mental health suffered as a result of the intense scrutiny of the women’s looks and outfits. ‘On my last season of X Factor, 20 million people watched the final, but I just got to a point where I didn’t want to be a part of it any more,’ she said. ‘I thought, this show is going that way. In my soul, I’m going in a completely different direction. I dug deep into myself and found some strength [to quit].’

Kylie has also previously spoken about how fame took a toll on her mental health. In a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone, she said: ‘What I think is great for a lot of people now is that there’s a discussion about mental health and the toll [fame] can take on people, I had that, I lived that,’ continuing ‘I was able to manage that myself and with my family and close friends and navigate those waters. It wasn’t a decision [to stay private], it was a reaction to protect myself and to protect my family because they would go through it with you.’

Now, Dannii focuses on the precious things in life. She is in a relationship with Adrian Newman, a music producer, and the couple share a son together who was born in 2010. She explained now, her focus is on spending quality time with her family, and accepting work ‘important’ to her.

‘I’ve spent my life travelling around the world, being away, missing birthdays, weddings, funerals,’ she said. ‘I’m really trying to find the balance now. You can’t have just the happiness without everything else. If you accept there’s light and dark, it’s all part of it.’