Dannii Minogue: `I thought I was dying`

The former X Factor judge, who has 11-month son Ethan with partner Kris Smith - underwent emergency surgery in April after being crippled by agonising pain, and said it felt worse than childbirth.

She told the Herald Sun, 'Anyone who says it is the most painful thing: I hear you.

'[Giving birth] was actually a breeze [by comparison]. After two hours of appendix pain I called my doctor and said, 'I think I'm dying and if I don't get to hospital right now I will be dead'.

'I had no idea what it was at that stage. I was out visiting a friend and started feeling unwell and it got worse and worse. The actual thought going through my head was I'm going to die. I couldn't move.'

She continued, 'Being in that much pain and not knowing what it was, was just horrendous. I'm just a new mum - I've got a little baby to look after. It was really scary. [The surgeons] whipped it (appendix) out.'

The 39-year-old said that the illness forced her to re-evaluate her work commitments in her home country of Australia and in the UK, and led to her decision to quit the UK X Factor.

'It's been a massive couple of years for me,' she explained. 'People just don't know the toll it takes, going back and forth to London. I'm here, I'm there, I hop off, then I keep going again. I'm really happy, but any health scare is a wake-up call and you really enjoy that time to sit back and breathe for a bit.

'It's the biggest show [in the UK] and I put my heart and soul into it and it's nice to leave on a high. But who knows about the future... watch this space.'