Kylie. Julie Aspinall
But still the ‘are they, aren’t they’ speculation continued, despite the fact that the two were by now to all intents and purposes living together in Jason’s place in Melbourne. Looking back now, it is almost inevitable that the two stars would have become a couple, given that both were single, because they really did do absolutely everything together as well as holidaying: they filmed Neighbours, they opened supermarkets, they did promotional work, they dealt with sudden and unexpected adulation and as Kylie herself said recently, they were the only two people who could know what they were both going through.
They had very little spare time but what there was of it was spent chez Jason, snatching a few rare moments of relaxation; the rest of their lives was a non-stop cycle of work, which was only to intensify as both began singing careers. And still they denied everything – until finally, worn out by the constant denials, Kylie let her secret slip in an interview with Woman’s Own in September 1988 after she had left Neighbours. ‘It’s quite true,’ she said. ‘He’s my boyfriend and our relationship is very special. But I don’t feel it’s anyone else’s business. I don’t see why I have to share everything. I tell everyone I’m still living with Mum and Dad. That’s true because I still take my washing home and it’s nice to have a decent cooked meal every now and then.’
And so why, asked the magazine, had the couple denied their relationship for so long? ‘It’s a good thing to have a little mystery in your life – everybody likes a bit of that,’ maintained Kylie, who then went on to display rather more guile than usual: ‘If everyone knew about Jason and me it would spoil the mystique and there wouldn’t be quite the same interest in us.’ And how did she feel now that she had left the show? ‘I miss being with Jason – that’s one of the reasons I don’t like going on long tours,’ she revealed – before adding that marriage to her erstwhile co-star was indeed a possibility although that could be ‘10 or 15 years away’. Bad tactics. If you want to marry someone who has not yet proposed, don’t admit it – a lesson Kylie has well and truly learned in later years. Kylie, despite her international fame, though, was still young and inexperienced in many of the ways of the world – and so what could be more natural than admitting to a few of her hopes and dreams?
For his part, Jason denied everything. ‘It’s just not true that we’re going out together or that she’s my girlfriend. We’re good mates and I enjoy her company, but that’s as far as it goes,’ he declared, somewhat ungallantly. ‘I don’t want to get in to a big row over this and therefore I won’t offend Woman’s Own and say they’re wrong. But the fact is I see Kylie as a best friend and not a lover. I really enjoy her company and miss the fun we used to have together on Neighbours. But she just isn’t my girlfriend. There’s no one in my life right now. For one thing, there just isn’t the time. And I know I haven’t met the right person. It doesn’t make me unusual in any way. A lot of people of my age don’t want to settle down at this stage.’
Perhaps, but with the benefit of hindsight, this might have been Jason’s major mistake as far as Kylie was concerned. He had publicly denied their love affair after she had admitted it, thereby for the first time raising doubts as far as Kylie was concerned as to whether the relationship was going to last. There was still a year to go before Kylie left Jason for Michael Hutchence but Jason – and Jason alone – had put a real dampener on the proceedings. Many people who have had to keep their relationship a secret crave public recognition from their loved ones, and Kylie was clearly no different from anyone else.
And certainly, at the time, she was devastated. A member of her management staff said, ‘She spoke from the heart when she said in Britain that Jason was her boyfriend and she hoped to marry him. Everyone, including Kylie, is stunned by what Jason has said. She is very hurt by it all. As soon as she gets a chance, she’ll be talking to him about their future.’
It would seem that she did exactly that. Although Jason still would not publicly acknowledge the relationship, by November 1988, their secret was now widely known – to the extent that they were even admitting to close friends that to all intents and purposes they lived together. Not only that: they were planning a duet, ‘Especially For You’, which went on to reach number one. ‘The single should be out by the end of the year and we’re both hoping for a Christmas hit,’ said Jason coyly at the time. ‘It would be great to come up with a classic like “White Christmas”.’
Kylie and Jason had both already started on their singing careers, of which much more in the next chapter, and so it seemed obvious that the perfect couple from Neighbours should become the perfect couple as a singing duo. And they were: the song and its accompanying video were as schmaltzy as they come. It largely features Kylie and Jason wandering around separate parts of a city until finally meeting up on stage (very apt for their relationship, some might say) where they finished up singing the song together. Kylie looks as if she’s singing her heart out, while Jason looks as if he can barely stop himself from giggling, but the single, if not in the “White Christmas” league, was a huge success, effortlessly reaching the top of the charts.
‘Filming the video was no different: we were best friends and we did go out at that time,’ said Kylie many years later when it was she, rather than Jason, who was keen to downplay the relationship. ‘We were the only two people who could really understand what the other was going through, so it was kind of as if we were childhood sweethearts. There was no difference whether we were on a set [or] opening a supermarket – we did everything together. Making the video was just another day.’
The song, like all of Kylie and Jason’s early work, came out under the protective wings of Stock, Aitken and Waterman, despite the fact that none of the three were Neighbours watchers. Indeed, when Mike Stock attempted to watch the wedding episode, he couldn’t bear to sit the whole thing through. On top of that, it was not the producers or even the couple themselves who wanted to do a record. Their fans had begged the duo to record a duet. ‘Lots of kids kept asking when we were going to do it. It was their suggestion,’ said Mike Stock in an interview three months after the single was released.
‘Then at the end of November when we saw it was the favourite to be the Christmas number one with William Hill, and we hadn’t even written one, much less recorded it, it seemed like time to do something,’ he continued. ‘None of us was terribly keen on the idea because it sounded a bit too much like cashing in, and far too sugary for comfort. So we decided not to do it. Then we were told it had pre-sale orders of 250,000 and began to feel that the market was telling us something. Kylie and Jason had come out of the closet about their relationship, so that wasn’t a problem, but they were concerned whether it was the right thing for their careers and wondered if it would be a hit.’
‘Can you imagine that?’ Pete Waterman interjected. ‘It came out and got to number one. The romance between Charlene and Scott in the series and Jason and Kylie off screen was the thing that helped to sell it. There’s something very wholesome about both relationships and I think that people like that and enjoy seeing them together.’
With that the interview took off into the realms of fantasy and it is amusing, touching or downright sad to read it in the light of later events. But this is now and that was then. What if the two got married, the producers were asked.
‘Fabulous!’ said Pete, enthusiastically. ‘They’d be all over the front pages of every newspaper in Europe for weeks. That would really do something for the record sales. Then, when they had a baby, that would get them even more publicity and we could do a record with all three of them together! Think of the sales: Jason, Kylie and the baby, it would be marvellous. All publicity is good publicity,’ he went on. ‘Divorce might be a disaster, but if Jason was cheating on the side, that would cause even more of a sensation. Yes, Kylie and Jason getting married would be very good news. Who knows, maybe they will, soon!’
Jason’s singing career, like Kylie’s, was taking off and in March 1989 he announced that he, too, was quitting Neighbours, an announcement that coincided with the news that his single ‘Too Many Broken Hearts’ had topped the charts within two weeks of its release. ‘For me it’s like a new beginning. It was pure coincidence,’ said an ecstatic Jason. ‘I never