Dannii Minogue has reflected on her time as a judge on The X Factor and the toll it took on her life.
The I Kissed a Boy presenter had a place on the hit reality show's judging panel alongside Simon Cowell between 2007 and 2010, before going on to join The X Factor Australia in 2013 and quitting in 2016.
Opening up about her stint on the UK version during a recent appearance Fearne Cotton's Happy Place podcast, the star said the job and its demanding schedule quickly began to take a toll on her "entire life".
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"I definitely had a moment where I was like, 'If this is what [the show] is – the toll it takes on your entire life – I don't know if it's worth it for me. I remember thinking, 'The show is what it is and I've got to step off'," she said.
Dannii went on to claim that she was the only judge who would go to rehearsals with contestants, saying: "The length of the days were so long. We would go straight into rehearsals for the next week's songs and none of the other judges were there. I was always there at 10am."
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After a long day's work, Dannii said she would often be asked to appear on spin-off show The Xtra Factor.
"I'd get home at 1:30 and it would take me three hours to wind down, then they'd say, 'Do you want to just pop over to Xtra Factor?'" she shared.
"You just want to say, 'I'd rather stick pins in my eyes'. But, when you're a viewer at home and you get that extra bit... it was amazing. It just, energy wise, you didn't get the best of us."
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Dannii will soon return to screens to host the second season of BBC Three dating show I Kissed a Boy, which she said is the first show she's worked on that has looked out for her mental health.
"The first time I've worked on a TV show – bearing in mind I've worked on TV since I was seven – the first time I've ever been told, 'If you need to speak to someone they're there', was on I Kissed a Boy season one," she said.
"It's the first time I ever thought that my mental health was important, and was acknowledged.
"It would have been really helpful back in The X Factor days to have had anything like that."
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Social Executive, Entertainment Portfolio After completing her joint honours degree in Journalism and English Literature at Cardiff University, Iona joined Digital Spy as a Content Production Intern in 2022, where she wrote across both news and features, specialising in TV and movies. Following her internship, Iona continued contributing to the site as a freelance reporter, becoming social executive for the Hearst UK entertainment portfolio in summer 2025. Iona now leads the DS social channels, covering red carpets with stars such as Paul Mescal, Austin Butler, and more.
