Kylie Minogue has revealed how a nervous breakdown forced her to slow down her hectic workload.

The singer said the experience taught her she had to say no to constant rounds of promotional duties.

In a BBC Radio 2 interview to be broadcast tomorrow, she says her father advised her she needed to make more time for herself.

Minogue – at number one for the seventh time with sultry single Slow – said she was making more time to see boyfriend Olivier Martinez.

“I did say work is easy, life can be hard. But now I’m actually making a concerted effort to give myself breaks, to see my boyfriend, to make time for life whereas before … I can’t even put it into words.

“There was so much going on and because I like to think that I’m quite strong, and have a strong constitution and yes, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it, learning to say no has been very difficult, you know.

“I remember my dad saying to me years ago, when I had a small nervous breakdown, in Australia: ‘Darling, you know you turn up to work and that’s what you are employed for and that’s what you do – but you don’t have to say yes to everything’.

“This style of work/living has been going for years and years and years and I’ve always been working.”

“It’s part of my life and part of my nature. But no, now I do say “no”, and you know what? The world doesn’t cave in, nothing terrible happens, I just have a little bit more time for life.”

It is thought to be the first time Minogue has mentioned a breakdown.

Last year she took a break in her native Australia after splitting from boyfriend James Gooding. But Gooding denied a newspaper report that it was a breakdown.

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