How Kylie Minogue was Still Trying to ‘Process’ the ‘Trauma’ of Surviving Breast Cancer: ‘It Was Difficult’

Kylie Minogue is still reflecting on her “difficult” cancer journey.

The Australian pop icon — who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 — spoke about surviving the disease, and how she’s still trying to come to terms with her cancer battle nearly 20 years later.

“It’s trauma, and any trauma resides within you,” Minogue, 55, told the outlet. “The experience of a cancer diagnosis will live in me. It was difficult. It was also amazing.”

“Amazing in that you are very aware of your body, of the love that’s around you, of your capability, all sorts of things,” she added.

Although she was declared cancer free in 2006, Minogue explained that she’s still processing the experience, which she does through her music.

“I sing to process everything, I think. I write to process. I perform to process. And sometimes I think I live to perform,” she said, adding that it’s “mind-boggling” her career is still going strong after 35 years.

Back in 2020, Minogue opened up to PEOPLE about how her harrowing cancer journey changed her life.

“It’s like the earth had kind of slipped off its axis. You see everything differently,” Minogue recalled.

“I remember having had my diagnosis, but the world didn’t know,” she said. “I was with my brother and my boyfriend at the time — we were all in a daze and went to a cafe. The server at the cafe was like, ‘Hey, how are you today?’ We just kind of robotically said, ‘Good, thanks,’ and in that moment I just thought: You really don’t know what anyone is going through. I thought that same person by tomorrow is going to see the news and say, ‘Oh my God, she was here yesterday, and we didn’t know.'”

Following her diagnosis, Minogue underwent a lumpectomy and chemotherapy and was declared cancer-free in February 2006. The experience forever changed the Grammy winner’s outlook.

“It’s a huge change, and it is before and after,” Minogue told PEOPLE at the time. “Now with what’s happening in the world, there’s a lot of people talking about a new normal, but I think after cancer or any other big, life-changing incident or illness, you have to adapt.”