分类： entertainment

Global pop icon Kylie Minogue has dropped a deeply personal bombshell in her new self-titled Netflix documentary, sharing that she received a second cancer diagnosis in early 2021, nearly 16 years after her first battle with breast cancer in 2005. The 57-year-old Australian superstar opened up about keeping the diagnosis and subsequent treatment private for years, saying that she was not ready to share her struggle with the public until now.

“My second cancer diagnosis was in early 2021. I was able to keep that to myself, not like the first time,” Minogue shared in the three-part docuseries, which dropped globally on Netflix Wednesday. “Thankfully, I got through it, again, and all is well. Hey, who knows what’s around the corner, but pop music nurtures me… my passion for music is greater than ever.”

Minogue explained that she struggled for years to find the right moment to go public with her second diagnosis, especially as she experienced a massive career resurgence with her Grammy-winning 2023 hit single *Padam Padam* and the critically acclaimed album *Tension*. At the height of her comeback success, she said she was still grappling with the emotional aftermath of her treatment, and did not feel obligated to open up before she was ready.

“I don’t feel obliged to tell the world, and actually I just couldn’t at the time because I was just a shell of a person,” she said. “I didn’t want to leave the house again at one point. Padam Padam opened so many doors for me but on the inside I knew that cancer wasn’t just a blip in my life. And I really just wanted to say what happened so I can let go of it. I’d sit through interviews and every opportunity I thought, ‘now’s the time’, but I kept it to myself.”

While Minogue kept her second battle private, she left subtle clues for fans on her 2023 *Tension* album. The track *Story* includes lyrics that directly reference her hidden struggle: “I had a secret that I kept to myself / Turn another page, baby take the stage.” Minogue noted that the lyrical nod served as a quiet marker for a challenging period of her life that she was not yet ready to discuss openly. Directed by Michael Harte, the same filmmaker behind the hit 2023 David Beckham documentary series, the project gave Minogue the space to finally share her story on her own terms.

The singer, who discovered her second cancer during a routine check-up, said she chose to go public now to encourage others to prioritize their regular health screenings. She hopes her experience will serve as a gentle reminder for people not to put off critical check-ups, noting that early detection was key to her positive outcome. “Early detection was very helpful and I am so grateful to be able to say that I am well today,” she added in promotional materials for the documentary.

Minogue’s first breast cancer diagnosis in 2005 made global headlines, forcing her to cancel the remaining dates of her Showgirl greatest hits tour and withdraw from a headline slot at Glastonbury Festival’s Sunday legends stage to undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Unlike her second diagnosis, her first battle was widely publicized, drawing an outpouring of support from fans around the world and public messages of encouragement from fellow public figures.

As one of the first major female celebrities to speak openly about a breast cancer diagnosis in the 2000s, Minogue was widely praised for raising public awareness of the disease. Her openness triggered a surge in women booking breast cancer screenings, particularly in her home country of Australia, where the trend became widely known as the “Kylie effect”.

In the documentary, Minogue also opened up about a little-known detail of her 2005 treatment: she postponed chemotherapy to undergo multiple rounds of IVF, in the hope of conceiving a child before starting cancer treatment. “I was 36 when I got my diagnosis so already it’s – you need to be thinking about children,” she explained. “So I did try, I even postponed my chemotherapy to try, which was quite scary at the time because you just want it out, gone. If it had happened it would have been just shy of a miracle. But it didn’t work out that way.”

After receiving the all-clear following her first treatment, Minogue later revealed in 2008 that she had originally been misdiagnosed, with medical providers initially telling her she had no reason to worry. She would eventually make her long-awaited Glastonbury debut 14 years after her planned set, taking the Pyramid Stage in 2019 with a career-spanning greatest hits set that became the most-watched performance in the festival’s history. The iconic performance capped off a decades-long career that has seen Minogue evolve from a soap opera star on Australia’s *Neighbours* to one of the best-selling pop artists of all time, with global hits including *Can’t Get You Out Of My Head* and *Spinning Around*. Just last December, she extended her late-career resurgence by claiming a rare UK Christmas number one double, topping both the singles and album charts.

The new documentary pulls together decades of never-before-seen archive footage and new interviews with close friends, family and collaborators, including Minogue’s sister Dannii, former *Neighbours* co-star and ex-boyfriend Jason Donovan, and long-time musical collaborator Nick Cave. At the documentary’s launch event this week, Minogue was joined by both Dannii and Donovan to celebrate the release of the project. For the pop star, opening up about her second cancer battle is about more than just closing a difficult chapter of her life – it’s about reminding fans that even global superstars face unspoken struggles, and she wants them to know she is not invincible.

In a landmark moment for global translated literature, Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi and translator Lin King have claimed the 2024 International Booker Prize at a ceremony held at London’s iconic Tate Modern gallery, bringing home the 10th anniversary of the award for their bold postcolonial novel *Taiwan Travelogue*. This win marks two firsts for the prize: it is the first work translated from Mandarin Chinese to take home the honor, and Yang, the 40-year-old multi-talented creator who also pens manga and video game scripts, becomes the first Taiwanese author ever to win the award. Set against the backdrop of 1930s Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule, the novel constructs a clever metafictional narrative: it is framed as a newly rediscovered Japanese travel memoir written by the fictional author Aoyama Chizuko, translated into English for contemporary readers. The plot follows Chizuko across the colonial territory, tracing her food-focused journeys through the island’s landscapes and the quiet, intimate romantic bond that grows between her and her Taiwanese interpreter, Chizuru. Speaking on the win, prize jury chair Natasha Brown praised the work for its deceptive depth and layered storytelling. “This is a book that surprises and isn’t perhaps what it seems like on the surface,” Brown noted, adding that the novel “pulls off an incredible double feat: it succeeds as both a tender romance and an incisive postcolonial novel. It’s a captivating, slyly sophisticated novel.” This year, *Taiwan Travelogue* beat out five other celebrated shortlisted works from around the globe to claim the prize. The shortlist included a story of a suburban witch from French novelist Marie NDiaye, a dystopian tale of a brutal prison colony from Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia, a quiet Tehran-set story from German writer Shida Bazyar, Bulgarian poet Rene Karabash’s *She Who Remains*, and *The Director* from German-Austrian author Daniel Kehlmann — the only male nominee on this year’s shortlist. Established to elevate fiction originally written in languages other than English and introduce new global voices to English-speaking audiences, the International Booker Prize has a proven track record of catapulting winning authors to international acclaim and driving major increases in their visibility and book sales. Several past International Booker winners, including Han Kang, Annie Ernaux, and Olga Tokarczuk, have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in the years following their Booker win. *Taiwan Travelogue* marks the first of Yang’s works to be translated into English, a project completed by Taiwanese-American translator Lin King. The pair will split the £50,000 (approximately $67,000) prize purse evenly between them. The novel was first published in Mandarin in 2020, and quickly earned recognition within Taiwan when it won the Golden Tripod Award, the island’s highest literary honor. In a lighthearted reflection on the novel’s core themes, Yang joked about the impact of writing the food- and travel-focused story: “The novel’s central themes of travel and food changed my life in two obvious ways: my savings went down; my weight went up.”

Global pop icon Kylie Minogue has bared her soul in a revealing new three-part Netflix documentary, confronting two decades of lingering trauma from her breast cancer diagnosis and opening up about the harsh media mistreatment that marked the early days of her career.

Twenty years after receiving the life-altering news that she had breast cancer, the Australian superstar said the emotional weight of that experience continues to shape her life to this day. When recalling the moment she got her diagnosis, Minogue described an overwhelming state of disbelief that left her scrambling to process uncharted territory. “Where do I even start? Shock,” she told BBC London in an interview about the project. “You’re trying to understand something you’ve never thought about before. It’s a crash course. It’s very deep and extended and it’s still with me today in many ways.”

Having called London her home for more than 30 years, Minogue also pulled back the curtain on the unflattering side of her early rise to fame, when she made the transition from starring on the hit Australian soap opera *Neighbours* to building her global music career. Revisiting old interview footage from that era for the documentary remains a distressing experience, she said, recalling the relentless, unkind scrutiny that left her feeling deeply humiliated as a teenage newcomer to the spotlight. “When I see some of that footage back, I’m still as confounded as I was even as a 19-year-old,” she shared. “Sometimes it felt like just humiliation and having to sit within that frame and handle it.”

Minogue noted that the aggressive, demeaning treatment she endured as a young star would be unlikely to unfold the same way in the modern entertainment industry, but she acknowledged that contemporary public figures face a new set of intense pressures stemming from social media platforms.

For years, Minogue repeatedly turned down offers to make an in-depth documentary about her life and career, saying she was never ready to confront her most painful memories on screen. This time, however, she realized the moment had come to lay her full story bare. “I’ve been asked many times and I always said no,” she explained. “If not now, when?”

Completing the project required her to push past lingering anxiety and embrace vulnerability to revisit chapters of her life she had long avoided. “In the end, I just had to take the plunge and really open myself up a little more,” she said.

Beyond looking back at past struggles, the pop star also shared her plans for the future: she hopes to return to acting down the line while continuing to create new music, a craft she described as both “a best friend” and “a saviour” that has carried her through her hardest days. Minogue also left fans with an exciting tease, hinting that she could return to perform at London’s iconic Hyde Park following her standout 2024 set at the venue. “I’ll see you again at Hyde Park,” she said, before adding with a playful smile, “I said that like I’m assuming I’m going to play Hyde Park again. Maybe I will. It was amazing.”

The documentary marks the most comprehensive look at Minogue’s decades-long career and personal journey ever created, giving fans an unprecedented glimpse into the resilience that has defined one of pop music’s most enduring stars.

The 2026 edition of the UK’s most prestigious horticultural event, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, opened this week in London, blending centuries of gardening tradition with boundary-pushing modern themes, ambitious sustainability projects and unexpected playful touches that have drawn crowds and sparked conversation across the country. Opening its gates to the public starting Tuesday, the five-day event is projected to welcome more than 150,000 attendees, with all tickets sold out weeks in advance — a testament to the enduring public love for the iconic show, which has been hosted at the Royal Chelsea Hospital on the banks of the River Thames since 1913.

Clare Matterson, director of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), framed the 2026 event as a particularly vital celebration of green spaces at a moment of global uncertainty. “We’ve never needed the joy of gardening, the power of plants for our planet or the peace of simply sitting in a garden, more,” she shared in an official opening statement.

Thirty custom-designed gardens are competing this year for the show’s coveted annual awards, with exhibits running the gamut from tranquil community-focused spaces to provocative, conversation-starting installations. Turning heads and stirring mild controversy is standout exhibit *Aphrodite’s Hothouse*, a bold reimagining of floral display that designer James Whiting describes as a theatrical celebration of love and lust. Marked by pendulous, heart-shaped and suggestively sculpted blooms, the lush, fragrant indoor garden also includes discreet nods to adult intimacy in the form of small sex toys — a choice that has drawn pushback from some traditional gardening circles, which Whiting has openly dismissed.

“People are excited to see something a bit fresh… and to see the RHS opening the doors to more modern topics,” Whiting told reporters from Agence France-Presse, arguing that the theme is inherently organic to horticulture. “Flowers are all about sex. So why not bring that to the Chelsea Flower Show?” he added, noting that this year’s show features a growing cohort of young, innovative new wave gardeners pushing the boundaries of the traditionally genteel hobby.

Beyond the bold provocative displays, many 2026 exhibits center on themes of conservation, sustainability and community impact, carrying on the show’s growing focus on environmental action. One standout exhibit from the Campaign for Protection of Rural England, designed by Sarah Eberle, features a massive sculpture of the sleeping Greek goddess Gaia — or Mother Nature — carved entirely from fallen native trees. Titled *Garden on the Edge*, the installation emphasizes the natural world’s innate power of regeneration and protection, highlighting joy to be found in ordinary natural spaces. After the show closes, the entire garden, including the Gaia sculpture, will be relocated to a new communal public park for a housing estate in northern Sheffield, extending its impact far beyond the Chelsea showgrounds.

Another sustainability-focused exhibit, the *Bring Me Sunshine* garden, is built to become a permanent part of the UK’s second Eden Project, which is scheduled to open in 2028 in Morecambe, northwestern England. Built to highlight coastal ecosystem restoration, the garden is surrounded by a retaining wall constructed entirely from recycled waste materials: waste shells from clams, mussels and cockles, paired with reclaimed coastal limestone, creating a low-carbon alternative to traditional concrete. The space is planted entirely with native edible coastal species from the Morecambe Bay area, including samphire, which is making its debut at the Chelsea show this year, sea kale and sea buckthorn.

Designer Harry Holding, a keen professional forager, explained that food acts as an accessible entry point for new audiences to connect with nature. “An important way to connect with nature is using food as that gateway,” he said. The original Cornwall-based Eden Project, which transformed a disused clay pit into a world-famous global garden destination 25 years ago, has injected £6.8 billion ($9.1 billion) into the local Cornish economy and draws one million annual visitors. Organizers hope the new Morecambe site will replicate that success, bringing jobs, skills training and economic regeneration to the historically impoverished coastal region. Co-designer Alex Michaelis called the project a story of “hope and regeneration” for left-behind coastal communities.

For vulnerable young people, the *Children’s Society* garden offers a quiet, informal safe space designed to help overstimulated teenagers step back from digital connectedness and reconnect with the natural world. Designer Patrick Clarke described the space as “a garden of safety, it’s a garden of calm, of protection,” noting that moving into the dense, green core of the garden feels like stepping into “the hug of the garden” for the always-on generation, giving them space to reflect and slow down. Clarke included small, hardy native plants that he calls “little jewels, that just need that little bit of love, that little bit of care that we all need,” mirroring the support the Children’s Society provides to vulnerable young people across the UK.

In a playful break from tradition, this year marks only the second time in the show’s 113-year history that whimsical, often divisive garden gnomes have been allowed back onto the official showgrounds. A collection of gnomes painted by high-profile celebrities, including Oscar-winning actor Cate Blanchett and Queen guitarist Brian May, will be auctioned off after the show to raise funds for RHS charity programs.

This year also features a special garden curated with input from King Charles III, who is expected to visit the show alongside Queen Camilla. Titled the RHS and The King’s Foundation Curious Garden, the exhibit celebrates the diversity of plant life and its profound impact on human life. Co-created by football icon David Beckham and designer Frances Tophill, the garden centers on King Charles’ favorite flower, the stately delphinium, with Tophill and her team tracking down one of the world’s rarest delphinium cultivars: the cornflower blue *Delphinium elatum* “Alice Artindale”. Beckham, who has long been an amateur gardener, echoed the exhibit’s core theme, saying: “In my experience, gardening is all about being curious.”

For years, a grinning face has stared out from magazine kiosks across Rome, gracing the cover of one of the capital’s most tourist-popular souvenirs: the infamous “sexy priest” calendar. Countless visitors to the Vatican, the global seat of Catholicism, have snapped up the annual publication for upwards of 10 euros ($11.65) as a quirky memento of their trip, charmed by the idea of a unusually handsome man of the cloth fronting the project. Now, four decades after the iconic cover shot was taken, the man behind the face has spilled a long-held secret: he was never a priest at all.

In a recent interview with Italy’s leading daily newspaper *Repubblica*, 39-year-old Giovanni Galizia, now a flight attendant instructor, opened up about the accidental decades-long hoax. The story dates back to when Galizia was just 17 years old, when a chance encounter with a photographer led to the fateful photoshoot. The photographer was working on a project highlighting iconic local figures across major Italian cities: gondoliers for Venice, priests for Rome. With a full priest’s outfit already prepared, he asked the teen Galizia if he would step in for a quick shot as a casual favor.

“It was just a game,” Galizia recalled of the 2001 shoot, which took place in Palermo, far from Rome where the calendar would later become a staple. He never took a single euro for the photo, he said, and had no idea the image would become a permanent tourist fixture decades later. Of the cover shot that’s drawn thousands of admiring glances from tourists, Galizia downplayed the hype that earned the calendar its “sexy priest” nickname. “I don’t see anything sexy in that photo… there’s nothing sensual about it,” he told the outlet. He also added that his current 39-year-old face shows the passage of time far more clearly than the decades-old teen shot.

Galizia went on to confirm that his non-priest status is not a one-off, hinting that many of the other “priests” featured across the calendar’s monthly pages may also be fake models, not actual clergy. Today, Galizia lives an ordinary life out of the spotlight: while his face is instantly recognizable to anyone who has wandered Rome’s tourist streets, he is able to move completely incognito outside the capital. The only reminder of his unexpected fame comes when friends travel to Rome, who almost always send him a photo of his face staring back from a kiosk calendar.