That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Dannii Minogue

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Actress, singer, presenter and all-round superstar, Dannii Minogue, joins Gaby for a catch-up and natter about all things joy. Many moons ago - Dannii depped for Gaby on The Big Breakfast - and they have remained great friends ever since. They talk about those hazy 90s days, navigating TV work with being a mum, the joy of being older and wiser - and why it's OK not to know what you want to do, at any stage of life. Dannii also talks about the brand new series of I Kissed A Boy which is available to watch now on BBC Three and iPlayer. We loved this chat - so much that Gaby gets emotional! - and we hope you enjoy listening to it too. Remember you can watch all of our episodes - and exclusively see our extra Show n Tell episodes - on our YouTube channel! (please like, follow and subscribe and become part of the gang!) Here's a bit more info on I Kissed A Boy:Dannii Minogue is back playing cupid, and it’s the party you don’t want to miss!Get ready for the return of the dating show, where the path to love is never straight. It’s loud, it’s proud… and it all starts with a kiss.Our single boys are matched up and meet for the first time… But will it end in true love? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danny Minogue, welcome. Hi. It's so lovely to spend time with you because you and I've known each other over 30 years. Yeah, a long time. You do not look any different. Oh, come on. No, no, no. No, you really don't. No, I do.

It's so good to see you. So now, the way that you and I knew each other was you used to host the big breakfast when I was on holiday. Well, I was told that I was the first person to fill in for you because you, because you needed a holiday. Like, that's a hard, it's taxing on the body, the hours that you get up and the level of adrenaline for two hours of live TV running around the house and in the garden.

And it was a lot of fun, I mean, but I got to do it in the short burst where I could just enjoy. Well, I used to have a holiday. I used to have time off every sort of eight weeks or ten weeks. And then you'd be back. I was back. But I loved it because I remember, But this is a really weird thing to remember.

But I remember you came in for the first, you sort of shadowed me. You came in to see what was happening and how we worked and getting the information for the cards. And I remember you saying, I'll look after your baby. And I just thought it was so lovely. You didn't come in and say,

oh, you know, I want this gig. Some people would be a bit funnier. No, I was just... You were so lovely. In awe of you. And I was like, how do I do this? And this is, it's going to be amazing. Then after the first day, I'm like, this is the most not amazing thing because I am so swallowed up.

I am so out of my depth. I don't know what I was doing. And I remember going to Chris, I can't remember if I was crying or not, but I'm just like, oh, this is wrong. This needs to stop now because I'm, everyone knows what they're doing. And it's going at such a speed. and I was like, I'd never used an earpiece before and someone talking my ear and someone talking there. It was just overwhelming.

But you were brilliant and you carried on doing it, which is so good. I'm so pleased that that didn't put you off off on to your first day. But you came in then, I suppose, you were an actor and a singer. So you hadn't done much presenting then. And now look at you, one of the biggest shows on the BBC. I kissed a boy, I kissed a girl, I kissed a boy, is back. I always credit that time at Big Breakfast for teaching me everything I needed to know and how to work with a team, how to really show up ready and how to make mistakes and move on.

with the biggest thing. So I was so fearful of getting things wrong. And Chris was like, you are going to get things wrong. Yeah. It's how you recover. Yeah. And I was like, huh? Like, I'd never even thought of it that way.

That's such a good lesson. You just have to be perfect. And it's put me in really good stead. But that's a good lesson for life, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Because we all make mistakes in every single thing in our private life, in our public life, whatever it is, in our crazy world. Yeah.

Okay. So let's sort of rewind a bit then. I'm just sipping on my coffee while we'll do this. Go for it. Go for it. No, you don't have to say sorry. Have your coffee. There's fizzy water as well so you might burp as well. It'd be lovely. Burp far. Yeah. All the rest. Face space. But before all of that, of course, you were an actress at a ridiculously young age.

So you have been a part of the industry, the show business industry, whatever you want to call it, for a while. Because obviously you're 21 now. Seven was my first job where I was learning scripts and going on to a big drama called Skyways. And I was the feature of one episode. And that was so much fun. I absolutely loved it. So Skyways set in an airport. So I'm a little girl about to get on a flight.

And she's not meant to take her little white pet mouse with her, but she sneaks it into the airport. And then all this mischief happens with the mouse. And so I didn't realize that there'd be a mouse ranking. I didn't know what a wrangler was. I didn't realize you had to have like 60 mice in case one wasn't performing. They would just swap it out and put a different mouse in. Oh my goodness.

So that's where I started. And then you enjoyed it. You were happy doing this, right? I really enjoyed it. And because I was so young, I didn't have that internal voice of, what if I can't do it right? It was just like, this is fun. That's it.

So all of the stuff that I did as a kid, I just went in with that attitude, like, this is so much fun. Never thought about getting anything wrong. Do you still have that now? Do you still have, this is fun? Because you've gone through some crap times, like everybody, but do you still now, it looks like with these shows, I kissed a boy, this is fun.

I absolutely wouldn't spend time away from my family if it wasn't something that filled me with joy. And that was important because I have to fly to a different hemisphere, each sort of time I come, it's between two or three weeks away. And so, like, I miss my son's grand final. It is basketball. I miss this. I miss that.

I miss my dad's birthday or whatever. It's a lot. And I pick and choose and I do very little now. I used to do a lot. and I used to pretty much be a workaholic. But now I just love, I love family, I love the balance. I love what that allows me to just say, no, not doing it. When did that happen?

When did that? Because it's a tricky thing to say no. When did that switch happen that you said, okay, I'm not going to be a workaholic anymore. I'm going to take time. Do you know the moment? I think I was still working quite a lot when Ethan was very young.

And... I mean, you were literally working when he was a baby in breastfeeding, weren't you? Yeah. So I missed auditions of X Factor. I came back for... I think I only came back at live shows. And they'd put this group together called One Direction.

I'm like, who are these boys? And I was running off at commercial breaks trying to breastfeed, which is very... tricky in heels to run from the studio to where that space was where I could go and do that and have a like they're all mature gowns but then underneath the gowns you've got a mic belt a microphone at this or that so you've got to get through all the cables and all the stuff it's you're not in a breastfeeding top right how did you get your boobs out and do all that

and then get back out there so I just had to undo the full dress be a my dressing room, we'd just everything out and feed and run, zip up and run back out there. That's amazing. It was so hard to have the mum hat, the work hat. And yeah, then there were a lot of things I just felt like, I don't know if I'm that person anymore that's out there doing that where that's the most important thing at any cost. I just was like, I don't think I'm that person. So becoming a mom really help bring some healthy, healthy balance for my life. But now, as you say, now when you come over here and you're doing

the shows here, you have to step away out of that. Do you, I'm going to use the word, because I hate it, and I'm hoping you're going to say no. Do you end up having guilt, or are you able to put, to be more realistic about it? Because I think guilt is a wasted emotion personally. Guilt comes up for me naturally. I see myself running around, organising all sorts of bits before I leave that I don't have to do

and that my partner is saying, I've got this, it's cool. But somewhere inside me needs to and wants to and it's a weird thing how it takes over and I wonder if most men have the same thing or it's being a woman and you've carried that baby and there's such that bond and connection. I don't know.

I try not to call it guilt, but there's a thing when the girls were younger and knowing I had to rush back to pick them up from school I had to rush back and if I was going to be late and there's that because I'm working and I'm juggling all the different things. But I think it's great that Ethan can see his mom going out there and working and say, you know what, Mom, I'm proud of you.

You go out there and you've worked. Yeah, I think we've got to keep going and show the kids that, you know, this is all okay. This is healthy. But as is the show, let's talk about the show. This is a really special show. I remember watching the first season. And I remember somebody saying, to me, and it was an older person, saying to me,

oh, do you watch that? It's not for you. I went, oh, yeah, it is. It's a show about love. And they just said, oh, I thought it was just for gay people to watch. I went, oh, no, watch the show. This person called me about two weeks later and said, oh, my God, I'm addicted. It's so lovely. It's so warm. It's funny. But it surprised a lot of people, didn't it? Yeah.

I think nobody knew what it was going to be. And I think there's been such a small representation of the community in media, on TV, drama's film, but particularly reality TV. And a lot of people are scared to be a part of these shows because they don't know if they're going to be used. Oh, that's interesting. Whereas nobody is used in this. Nobody is token. No one's there to be.

laughed at or poke fun at, it's literally what you said, it's about love. And all of the people that are on our show had previously been told by other formats, it's logistically too difficult to have anyone from the community in part of a reality dating show. And that was absolutely soul destroying for so many people. And instead of trying to work, at how to include them in existing programs. What's brilliant about this is that the rule book was thrown out. We created a safe, beautiful space that is about love. We threw out the normal reality dating where you are stoking drama.

You're putting people together because you know they're not going to get on. That is completely not what we do. Hallelujah to that. That's why I love it. Yeah. It's kind. It's kind. And I guess if you think you have an idea of what the community looks like or what they're going to say or what they're going to do, you don't because everybody's different.

There's no cookie cutter, especially since we can see in the boys series or the girls series, they're coming from all over the country. So from their backgrounds, family, religion, area where they come from, the people that show up are wildly. different and they learn so much from each other. That's a beautiful thing to watch as well as this love. They have their own evolution. They learn from each other. They walk away with this new friendship group from that show and our goal is love, you know, that there's partnerships that are real from the show. You're very nurturing though, aren't you? Because we saw that on X Factor of obviously. You were never nasty.

You were always very kind. You're very nurturing to them all. And when you look at your list of, you know, the list of people that appeared from that show who were under your tutelage, just incredible list of people. Yeah. And then with your show now,

you nurture them all. You care about them all. And that's, it's so, it is wonderful to say. And I have to say, I think it's a shame X-Factor doesn't exist anymore with you doing it because I think at the time we did see each other when it was nearing the end of your time. And I saw you and I said, I think you're so good on this. You should be doing this on your own. And you just laughed at me.

He just went, what are you talking about? No, because you cared about them. And you weren't nasty and malicious. Yeah. Well, I was lucky I got to go to Australia and then do three years there. And they felt very different in the way that they were run. And I got to mentor a girl called Dami Im. Now, if you're into Eurovision, she performed a few years back for Australia

with a song called Sound of Silence in this incredible white dress. And, you know, I've been able to keep in contact with a lot of people from the show. Oh, that's so lovely. Yeah. And from the UK one, like Lucy Jones, like going to see. I see her in the West End. Isn't she incredible? She's incredible in so many roles.

She got the role of Wicked and I was her first phone call. We hadn't spoken for ages, but she said, I wanted to call you because you're part of making this happen. She said, I want to let you know I got the job. But on top of that, I have auditioned for the role of Elphaba every year for 10 years. This is my 10th year and I finally got the job. And then I said, I was going to be back in London soon. I came to see her on stage.

Like there are just so many incredible moments. I remember I wasn't looking after One Direction. I was looking after Matt Cardle, who won that year. Lovely, Matt. Yeah, he's gone on to do amazing theatre, which I love Matt. I've gone to see. But like when One Direction came out to Australia, some of my friend's daughters wanted to go.

And so we took them to see One Direction. And it's just, you know, it's great to see them doing what they set out to do. So that, those sort of shows, because you've been a judge on so many now, on many different shows. Yeah. That all of those shows, it's interesting they've sort of slowly died away. There's not as many as there were. I think everything goes in like a fads or, yeah. But it's, it was interesting because it didn't, in the early days of those shows,

It didn't, this is a very odd thing to say, but it didn't feel very judgmental. Even though they were being judged, it didn't feel nasty. Maybe because social media wasn't as huge then. Yeah, I remember social media really coming into it towards the end of my UK X Factor. And that puts such a tough impact on everyone. It really did. How do you cope with it all, all of the, the, Madness around. Because you've lived in the spotlight for most of your life.

And obviously with your sister as well, I think people might know what she does. You know, apparently she's sort of similar things to you. But you've lived in the public eye and now with, you know, you're scrutinised. Your every meal. Every meal. Every meal. Every move. Every meal, maybe as well. But you're every move. I mean, I remember you and I sitting down and talking and you were going through stuff in your private life. and you said, why does my private life have to be everybody's public life? And I remember just giving a big hug and just saying, it's not fair.

I remember that conversation. All the time you had all of that. And then now you've also got the social media stuff. And I feel like you're doing this. You're sort of brushing it off your shit going, okay, you know what? I can handle it all. Yeah. There's definitely a lot of post-trauma with all of that

because when I was in it, there was nothing else. I could do, this is what I do as a job and this is what the landscape is. So on top of social media coming into play and everyone trying to navigate that and coming across, you know, yes, there was sometimes it got quite nasty. There was also, I won't go into it, but all the phone hacking stuff as well. So yeah, it was, there was nowhere that I could turn or feel safe for private and it was very, very difficult and I wanted to just give up and not be a part of it. But I'm so pleased you didn't. I'm so pleased you're here. Look, but I just feel that you're happy. Yeah. Is that okay for me to say that? I stepped off the train. I went back to Australia,

which I think was really good for me, being around family. It's a very different sort of ballgame of how it runs back then. It's not as heightened as things are here in London. And I need, needed that bit of a break. I'd been here for 22 years. I was like I was. I was. Yeah. Yeah. Because I came here like as a teenager. Oh, I was. Yeah. So I went back and really enjoyed that time and, and the break. Social media has been incredibly good for me. And I know that you have the same effect where you put out your intention and your vibe that you want this to be a safe, fun, happy space. Absolutely.

And pretty much you meet incredible people and connect over social media and start DMing people and you create this incredible community and you bring people together. There's only small bits of nastiness but there was just this period where I was on like the biggest show here.

It was this wild time of the start of social media and the press didn't hold back. with anything and that created a lot of nastiness and sometimes you've just got to shut the door move away, close things down, don't look at it, you've got to remove yourself from those spaces. But that's so mature. That's what kids do now that hopefully they do that before they're getting into trouble with not coping with it. But shut it down, delete the apps, move away from it, do whatever you have to do that makes

you feel good. And it's quite a presumptuous thing for me to say. And I hope what I feel is right. Like I said, I just get the feeling that you're happy. I am. I'm happy. I'm full of joy. I want to share that joy.

Are you still doing your fashion? You're still doing all your fashion stuff? Yes. Yes. Yes. I love my fashion. So I started designing, had my own rage at 17. That's insane.

What you've done. If you were to write a list of things that you've done, and I don't mean a CV, so Ethan says, hey mum, I'm not going to do an Australian accent. Go, what are you doing? So, hey mum, can you just list a few things that you've done? If you were to write that list,

you would probably, I hope you would look at it and you'd go, oh, good God, I've done all that. Yeah, mostly when I look at it, I can see things where I jumped into stuff that I had no idea how to do. 17, your designing fashion. Yeah, I'd never, I'd never, like, gone to fashion school. I had designed stuff for myself, but I hadn't done it as this big business. And somehow people have just let me jump in and do things that I don't know how to do.

So what's next then? That means you can do, I love that, keep that in your mind, now, with a magic wand. I say I've got a magic wand, invisible magic wand. I'm handing it to you. People have let you do things. Let yourself do things. So you've done the fashion.

You've done the books. You've done the records. I hope you're going to do some more music because I've always loved you to do music. The acting, presenting. Do more presenting as well, please. Anything. You could do anything.

What would it be? So anything. A passion of mine is, definitely connecting people. So, I mean, it's fantastic in the show that I'm doing now, but on a daily basis, I do that with friends and people in business, and I get a kick out of it. And so I feel like because I do lots of different stuff,

fashion, TV, this, that, da-da-da, I meet lots of different people, and that's then very interesting because then you can connect. these people that wouldn't have met. And so I feel like by having those few things that I do enables me to do the thing that I love that I think is my superpower, which is connecting people. And what would you do with that?

I don't know what it's going to be. That's really exciting. Yeah. I think just stay away from the stuff that doesn't make you feel good, lean into and carve out time. for stuff that gives you that like, oh, I'm so excited to do this. And the rest will fall into place because I kind of feel like there's some path

we're meant to be on. And through our experiences, we find it. We find our purpose. We find out where we're meant to be. I mean, I'm still kind of working it out. Good, but that's good. Yeah. I think there is this myth that you know that you're meant to know exactly what you want

to do. A friend of mine who's 62 And he said to me Because he always He teases me nicely Because he says You always knew when you were three You want to be a TV presenter

I still at 62 Have no idea And I always say We always have this conversation He's this fabulous gay guy And he says You know I haven't found

The man I'm going to settle down with I haven't found the job I'm going to settle down with And I keep saying It doesn't matter You've still got time Yeah Just find what

We don't all have to know Exactly what we're going to do No But how do did you know at such a young age you wanted to do that? You must have seen someone on TV. I did. I saw a show over here called Blue Peter and that was all I wanted to do. But that's you at seven acting. I've got a Blue Peter badge. Have you? Yes. Oh! Yes. What did you get your Blue Peace badge for? Just going on the show? Yes. I was given one and I'd still have it. It's yeah,

very special. So when you were seven, you did a drama, as you said, with all these 60 mice, oh, makes my skin crawl. But you knew you wanted to do this, whatever this was. Yes, like that feeling of working in a team and creating something. So whether it's TV, music, music videos, a live performance. I love that feeling of creating something. What about live shows? Do you do live shows anymore? Not really.

I don't, the time it takes to really put that together and then be away, it's not really something that I want to take away from family time. I love that. And like Ethan's 14, I figure how many more years have I got at the moment to really be around a lot with him, enjoying stuff with him. So he's totally into basketball. So what is it now? One, two, three, six days a week there's basketball stuff on.

Six days a week? Yeah. Is he to play? And that's what I used to do as a kid's six days a week performing when I was working. And that's what he loves. He loves basketball. Does he want to do it professionally? He wants to do something within basketball.

So he plays on a few teams. He was coaching last year. Oh, amazing. And we actually go to professional games and just immersing ourselves in it. That's sort of where he wants to be. And that's like, you know, my parents helped me do that. They were letting me go to singing and dancing classes and going to see concerts and immersing myself in this thing that I wanted to do as my job.

I met Ethan when he was a baby. Literally, yeah, born. And now... I think it's seven... No, it must have been younger than seven months. That's just insane. Maybe four months, maybe four months when... Where does time go?

The weirdest thing is when I fly back and forth between Melbourne and London, and I see parents on planes with the little babies, and I remember doing that with him on my own and just like, oh, it was incredible. Now he hardly fits in a big seat on his own. Oh, how lovely. I love the fact that when I said, you seem really happy, you said, yes, I am. And if that's the 32 years ago when we first met, thinking now, the 32 years later, I actually, this is really weird.

I have no idea I'm being completely honest. I suddenly feel really emotional. Yeah. But it was, you know, we've known each other 32 years. And here we are and we're both happy. How lovely. I always wondered when I can. came into big breakfast to fill in for you,

if you had had a say in that, a choice of who could be there, I didn't know. I was so pleased when you came in, because you were so lovely to me. But also when they said you were coming in each time, I was, and there was a time you couldn't do it. And I was really upset. Because we used to send each other messages, leave each other cards and leave each other messages. Because I just, it was us. It was us that did it.

So I just, it's really weird how emotional I suddenly got. That was really bizarre. I think it's also that it feels like two weeks ago. We're still both here. So you see someone from back then, you're like, we're both still here, loving what we do. And I feel like back then, I definitely had an image in my head is that I didn't see older women releasing records or going on tour or being a part of TV or leading shows or being the lead actress, you know. And so I had clear in my mind, you've got X amount of time and then that's it.

It's over. So I think it still blows my mind and maybe that's the same with you that and we're still here. We're still here. That's sometimes so. And we've managed to, you know, have a life and a life away from the cameras as well. and then you bring that joy back with you to the things that you want to do that we've chosen.

We really want to do these things now. What a joy to see you. I cannot tell you, I can't believe you made me so emotional. I did not know that that was going to happen, but it's always a joy to see you. And carry on just being happy, my lovely. Thank you. Oh, no, we'll do that in a minute.

We'll do that in the next one. But yes, because on the next show, we always share our guest nugget of joy. But for this one, thank you very much. Thank you.