Delta Goodrem reveals she didn’t start drinking alcohol until she was 27

Delta Goodrem is opening up about her 20s – telling Kyle and Jackie O she avoided booze in her younger years due to “health challenges”.

After bursting into the spotlight at 18, Delta Goodrem missed out on some typical teenage moments – like having her first drink.

The pop star has revealed she was 27 when she first started drinking, joking on Kyle and Jackie O that she was a “late bloomer” and probably won’t “let loose” entirely until her seventies.

The alcohol admission forms the opening line of her new single Billionaire, released today, in which the 36-year-old singer muses about the past chapters of her life and reflects on how she’s grown.

RELATED: Delta Goodrem reveals secret health battle

Goodrem released new single Billionaire today. Picture: YouTube

Opening up to The Daily Telegraph about the lyric, she said: “I’d worked from such a young age that it wasn’t until my late twenties that I finally started to have my teenage years.”

Elaborating on radio this morning, she added that while navigating a few “health challenges” in her younger years, drinking alcohol and going out with friends was never a priority.

“It just wasn’t really my thing,” she said.

At the age of 18 – shortly after she topped the charts with Born To Try – Goodrem was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and forced to put all working commitments on hold while undertaking treatment.

Speaking to WHO Magazine last year, she said of the July 2003 diagnosis: “It was like a bomb had gone off.

“I remember that when I was first told I had cancer, my body went into shock and I shook uncontrollably for the next 24 hours,” she said.

Goodrem lost her hair due to chemotherapy and said the changes to her physical appearance were “confronting”.

RELATED: ‘Creepy’ Delta stalker defends love messages

Goodrem was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2003 at the age of 18. Picture: Supplied

“It was very hard to feel beautiful in an external sense – my skin colour had a green tinge to it, there was a lot of steroid effects and it was hard to feel good.”

After beating cancer, Goodrem’s career continued, with the star this week revealing her late-20s brought a “period of self-discovery”, which she explores in her new single.

“The lyrics mention how I was trying to numb the pain around me,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

“It was an interesting chapter in my life.”

When probed by Kyle Sandilands this morning about when she’s going to “go through her sl*tty phase” given the late start with alcohol, she joked: “I’m thinking a bit later … I'm thinking in my 70s or something, I think that’s when I’ll really let loose.”

The former The Voice coach joked about her innocent image on radio this morning. Picture: Supplied

While her cancer battle is behind her, Goodrem’s career unfortunately hasn’t been without more health-related bumps in the road.

Last year, she opened up about the terrifying secret health battle that left her unable to speak following complications from surgery.

In a confronting video uploaded on social media, dated October 2018, the Voice star can be seen struggling to communicate while hooked up to tubes in a hospital bed after having her salivary gland removed.

Goodrem explained that she woke up from surgery to discover a paralysis of a nerve in her tongue had left her unable to speak.

After months of rehabilitation with daily speech therapy, Goodrem was finally able to get her voice back.

She explained to fans that she’d kept her health battle private for so long as hadn’t been “ready” to share it.

However – much like today’s Billionaire release – it was laid bare in her song Paralyzed, which was inspired by the difficult period.

The former Neighbours star is opening up about her private life in her lyrics. Picture: Getty Images

Last week, Goodrem pushed back her indoor arena tour – which would have been the first of its kind in Australia since the pandemic.

Originally planned for April, it will now start in September amid potential border closures as the coronavirus vaccine rollout continues.

Originally published as Delta Goodrem reveals she didn’t start drinking alcohol until she was 27