Heartbreaking reason Jason Donovan couldn't talk to ex Kylie Minogue for years
Jason Donovan opened up about his heartbreak after Kylie Minogue ended their three-year romance with a phone call and moved on with INXS star Michael Hutchence
It's been more than three decades since Kylie Minogue brutally dumped Jason Donovan, but the pain is still raw for the Neighbours star, who admitted he couldn't talk to her for years about their devastating break-up.
"It was an extremely painful parting of the ways and, without a doubt, I took a long time to recover from it. Years, definitely," he told the Mirror in 2016.
The young actors met on the set of Australian soap Neighbours and were both turned into superstars.
The 1987 on-screen wedding between their characters Scott Robinson and Charlene Mitchell was watched by a staggering 19.6 million people and is still hailed as the most iconic TV nuptials ever.
They both launched music careers, singing together in the hit classic Especially For You in 1988, but their relationship spilled over into real life.
For three years, the young couple were very much in love but as their careers exploded it meant they were often apart as they both travelled the world to promote their music.
And on one heartbreaking day, Kylie made the decision to end her romance with Jason. He was working in New York, while Kylie was in Japan when he would receive the phone call that ended their relationship and informed him that she had met and fallen in love with INXS frontman Michael Hutchence.
More than three decades later, the Too Many Broken Hearts singer still finds it painful to talk about.
Jason explained: "It was bad enough that she'd run off with anybody but she happened to run into the arms of the greatest rock god of the period, the very guy who I secretly wanted to be. That was a pretty big punch to take."
Kylie and Michael were a couple for two years and remained close friends until his tragic death in 1997.
Appearing on Piers Morgan's Life Stories in 2010, Jason confessed that his own jealousy of Kylie's solo success likely contributed to their split.
"I knew I was in love with her when she became successful on her own," he told Piers. "It was a jealousy thing. I could see her slipping away. I am sure it happened before that, but it was not until I could see her going off in one direction, I thought I was going to lose her."
Jason went on to marry Angela Malloch in 2008, with whom he shares children Jemma, Zac, and Molly.
