There are two TV WEEK Logie Awards the Minogue sisters attended together that really stand out in Dannii’s memory. One is 1988, when Kylie, then 19, accepted the Gold Logie, saying she hoped she could “do the industry proud”, while Dannii, then 16, watched from the audience.
”I could see, looking back on the videos of her accepting her award, how nervous she was to be addressing her peers at the podium,” Dannii, 51, tells TV WEEK.
“It’s so cute, that speech – and so powerful.”
That speech came to mind after Kylie’s massive concert in London’s Hyde Park in 2018 that had fans and critics raving.
”She was like, ‘This is the first show I feel so good about,’ because she picks everything to pieces, and then she got her five-star review” Dannii remembers.
”And I think back to that TV WEEK moment, of what she was saying into the microphone. I’m like, ‘She’s been wanting that and she’s worked hard and never given up.”’
With Johnny Young at the 1990 Logies
(IMAGE: Supplied)The other Logies that stands out in Dannii’s memory is 2014, when Kylie returned after a break of more than two decades. Dannii says the photos of the two of them taken backstage show ”the joy of coming back home”.
”TV WEEK has been a part of our lives,” she adds.
”Being adults and being able to really enjoy it and embrace the moment… it’s so different from those younger days of being nervous and overwhelmed.”
The Minogue sisters started out in showbiz by ”nagging” their mum, telling her they wanted to perform, until she signed them up to an agent.
Starting out with a small role in drama series Skyways, Dannii, then known as Danielle, went on to be a contestant in Young Talent Time on her eighth birthday, ”dressed in a little sailor outfit my grandma made for me.”
From there, she joined the team, becoming a household name.
The star with her H&A co star Nicolle Dickson, who played tearaway Bobby.
It was in her last year on YTT that Dannii shared the cover of TV WEEK with Kylie, who was at that time starring as Charlene in Neighbours.
”Kylie and I look at this photo a lot and just go, ‘Oh my God – check us out with our perms!’ and then there’s obviously extra tonging going on there,” Dannii says with a laugh.
”It’s just such a happy, gorgeous picture.”
The year after Dannii finished on YTT, she was back on the cover of TV WEEK as a soap star.
She says the role of Emma Jackson in Home And Away, which was written for her, ”jumped off the page.”
”Going from squeaky clean Young Talent Time to fistfights and telling everyone to ‘rack off’, you can imagine how enticing that was as a teenager.
I never had those rebellious years – it’s not my personality – but it was fun to be on set and be moody and stroppy.”
Looking regal in the TV Week photo booth at the 2009 awards.
(IMAGE: Supplied)Still, Dannii felt the pressure that came with joining the popular soap.
”I was so nervous, because all those actors know exactly what they’re doing. They’re so highly trained, they’re working at such a fast pace” she admits. “I was like, ‘Whoa, I’ve got so much to learn.'”
It was on the set of Home And Away that Dannii met her future husband Julian McMahon, who played Ben.
Dannii says there was ”that complete attraction.”
But the couple split in 1995, the year after they married. It was one of the toughest times in her career.
”Going through a divorce and still working and being in the public eye, and then Kylie getting sick [with breast cancer in 2005], were the two hardest times,” Dannii says.
”You just want to run and hide. But that’s how I paid my rent and I had to get up and go to work.”
A teenage Dannii with her Home and Away co star Guy Pearce at the 1988 TV Week Logie Awards
(IMAGE: Supplied)Dannii has had enduring success as a judge on some of the UK’s and Australia’s biggest talent shows, including Australia’s Got Talent, The X Factor and The Masked Singer. However, in the past year, she’s barely been on our screens.
She spent three weeks in the UK filming gay dating show I Kissed A Boy, but chose not to do anything else, because she didn’t want to spend too much time away from Ethan, her 12-year-old son with former partner Kris Smith.
”I try to pick one show a year so that I’m not away from Ethan more than that,” she explains.
Ethan, who’s a big fan of The Masked Singer, was shocked that his mother said no to a fourth season.
”Ethan was like, ‘Are you kidding me, Mummy? You’re not doing Masked Singer?’ He was really upset about it.”
At the 2003 event afterparty.
(IMAGE: Supplied)The reason Dannii says no to ”so much” is because she wants to be a hands-on mum.
Although her Petites fashion range keeps her busy, she doesn’t do the gigs and weekend work she once devoted time to.
”Now, it’s basketball,” she says. ‘Where’s the basketball game I’ve got to get to and how many kids am I driving?’ So I’m an Uber driver for now on the weekends.”
Another thing Dannii has said no to: Emma Jackson’s return to Home and Away.
”They [the producers] have asked me back,” she reveals, ”but at the time when they said, ‘This is where we could fit it into the storyline,’ I wasn’t available. I couldn’t commit that amount of time to it.”
But it’s still a possibility at some point.
”It was amazing watching the final episode of Neighbours Kylie did [in July this year]”, she says.
“That was so good.
I know she had a lot of fun doing that, so I’d love to have that experience as well.”
