Gabriella Swerling
Kylie Minogue has always attracted intense scrutiny over her romantic life amid a slew of high-profile relationships.
The 57-year-old multi-award-winning Australian popstar is currently single, after revealing in 2024 that she was “enjoying this freedom”.
However, her exes include former Neighbours co-star, Jason Donovan, INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, French actor Olivier Martinez, American singer Lenny Kravitz, British actor Joshua Sasse, and Spanish model Andrés Velencoso.
When asked whether the late Hutchence, the Australian singer-songwriter who she dated from 1989 to 1991, was the love of her life, she told the Sunday Times’ Style Magazine: “Yes, probably. I’ve had lots of relationships, some were love, some were not. My relationship with him, or our relationship at the time, was not for that long, but it had a profound effect on me.”
Hutchence was found dead in a hotel room in 1997, aged 37. Minogue was just 21 years old when she met him at an INXS after-party in 1989, shortly after she had ended her three-year relationship with Donovan.
She has said in previous interviews that her relationship with Hutchence was formative for her young adult years.
When they first met, he told her: “I don’t know what we should do first, have lunch or have sex.” The actor said she was both intrigued and scared by his bold claim and their instant chemistry.
In a 2014 interview with A Current Affair, Minogue added of their encounter: “He did ask to kiss me numerous times and I did say no numerous times.”
She made the comments about Hutchence ahead of an forthcoming Netflix documentary about her life, entitled, Kylie.
“We went on this beautiful journey of a relationship,” she told the program. “His passing in 1997 was a loss to so many, including myself,” she continued.
“People wonder why I’m still so moved… it’s for many reasons. One of those is that he was one of my first big steps into adulthood, into the wider world.
“A world of possibility and discovery. Travel, literature, excess, connections, art, artistry, expression, performance, and on and on the list goes!” she added. “I was the perfect age for that moment.”
Minogue also confirmed in The Sunday Times interview that she does not currently have a boyfriend. She said: “I was in a relationship and when that ended I realised I was OK on my own. I’m definitely getting pickier.”
In the 2019 documentary Mystify: Michael Hutchence, she described the INXS star as “a dark, bad boy” and herself as “the pure, good girl”.
She added that he was a “sensual” person who awakened that in her too: “Sex, love, food, drugs, music, travel, books, you name it, he wanted to experience it,” she said. “As his partner, I got to experience a lot of that as well. If you’re a sensual being, all of your senses need stimulation. He definitely awakened my desire for things in my world.”
In the same documentary, Minogue opened up about their split, admitting she could not remember why they ended things: “Was it work, was it the drugs? I don’t know. He was like a broken man,” she said.
“He was on all fours on the floor crying. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what was happening. I just know he was a broken man. I’d never seen any man like that before. I left pretty confounded and destroyed, and knew that was it. He broke my heart. I have to confess that the hurt stayed for quite a long time.”
He died by suicide a year after his daughter’s birth and Minogue attended his funeral, which took place in Sydney.
Hutchence went on to date model Helena Christensen and the presenter Paula Yates, with whom he shared a daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence.
The Telegraph, London
