Kylie: “My body is not what it was”

A pop star famed as much for her ability to fill out a pair of hot pants as a stadium, Kylie Minogue has always been synonymous with itsy, bitsy flesh-revealing outfits.

The infamous Spinning Around video in 2000, in which she wore a pair of barely-there vintage sequined micro shorts, will go down in the style annals as pop gold.

But last week the 36-year-old singer revealed, with searing honesty, how her treatment for breast cancer had left her body changed forever and with it, her fundamental perception of herself.

"As far as body image goes, I've shrunk to nothing, I've ballooned... my body is not what it used to be," she revealed, "but it's the body I'm in."

Diagnosed with the disease in May 2005, Kylie underwent six gruelling months of chemotherapy before triumphantly returning to the stage last November. During that time, she said, her relationship with herself changed profoundly.

"When you are stripped of everything and you have to grow your eyelashes back, grow your hair back, it's just astonishing," she admitted. "It's hard to express what I have learnt from that, but a deep physiological and emotional shift has happened."

The star is currently preparing for the launch of her first post-cancer album next month, which will be preceded by the release of the single 2 Hearts. In a change from her usual saucy image, the promotional photo for the single, focuses on Kylie's face rather than her figure, and in the accompanying video she channels curvy 1950s screen goddess Marilyn Monroe. Yet despite her transformed shape, the singer insisted that her attitude to beauty remained unaffected.

"What I believed before my illness has only been enhanced since," she said, "and that's that beauty comes from within."