Delta Goodrem is the sweetheart of Australia, beloved from a young age for her talents on screen and behind the mic.
But the trajectory of her life completely changed when she was diagnosed with cancer at just 18-years-old.
Up until this diagnosis back, Delta landed minor roles as a child in A Country Practice, and Hey Dad…!.
Her big break was in 2002 when she portrayed the shy school girl, Nina Tucker on the beloved Australian soap Neighbours. Her song Born To Try debuted in one of the episodes and soared to number 1 on the ARIA Charts.
More than two decades after her cancer diagnosis, The Australian Women’s Weekly is looking back at Delta Goodrem’s cancer journey.
Delta’s cancer diagnosis in 2003:
Delta’s musical dreams came true on March 24, 2003, with the release of debut album Innocent Eyes.
But she was suffering… Delta began to experience rashes, night sweats, exhaustion. After visiting many doctors, Delta’s symptoms were dismissed as stress given she was working on her acting and singing career. Delta then noticed a small lump on her neck.
Her mother Lea insisted her daughter undergo further tests when the lump on her neck began to grow.
Delta was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma on July 8, 2003.
Now 40, the singer revealed the scary premonition while speaking on Davina McCall’s Begin Again podcast.
“I went to bed, and I woke up at 3.31am… I had a nightmare, a very dark figure came to me on a grave with a note,” Delta shared. “I was head-to-toe [in sweat], like I’d been in the ocean, and I was completely frozen with fear.”
After the nightmare, she then warned her loved ones that “something’s going to happen to me.”
Delta begins cancer treatment
Immediately after her diagnosis, Delta was booked into surgery to remove the tumours. But at the time, hearing her diagnosis felt like a “death sentence.”
Naturally, Delta stepped away from singing to undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy. During this time, she often donned wigs given she was experiencing hair loss with the treatment.
In 2024 Delta revealed to 9honey that her beauty transformation between post-chemo and during chemo was difficult as a teenager.
“I barely ever wore makeup back then. But when you lose your hair, including your eyebrows and lashes, your skin is pale and you have braces – you want to feel pretty and you start to get creative,” she said.
Delta made a huge comeback in 2004 after entering remission, and even released hit song Mistaken Identity.
Admittedly, it took many years for the young singer to return to her old self. In a 2025 interview on Begin Again, Delta detailed why.
“It’s like a bomb goes off in the house. A lot of shrapnel gets hit, families are impacted, people’s lives change,” she said.
“Mum and dad didn’t cope as well with having so much attention in a regular, loving family house, [and] having people project [their experience] on them or us.”
“I wasn’t the long haired piano playing girl, it just was very different after that chapter.”
Ahead of Delta’s Eurovision performance, she reflected on how cancer impacted her confidence while speaking on John Smith’s Great Chat Show.
“Going through cancer was an extremely hard, confusing time. When the entire world puts the microscope on your family and you – just after going through a record breaking album at the same time as cancer – it’s like a bomb going off,” she admitted.
“My strong voice had been put into a life or death situation, and then had to find my way out of it. Then when you’re on the other side, everything doesn’t look the same. I don’t look the same. I’m not the long-haired piano playing girl anymore.
“I just got a little bit lost on the second album. It certainly gave me my voice to be strong and even more refined of who I am today.”
The years following
It has been more than 20 years since Delta first discovered she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. In this time, she has released many more songs and albums beloved by thousands of fans.
She even returned to the screen in House Husbands, Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You, Christmas with Delta, Neighbours, Love is in the Air, and coached on The Voice Australia.
Delta has toured across Australia, New Zealand, and Europe – where she currently is preparing to compete in Eurovision on behalf of Oz.
And it’s through music that she found her soulmate in guitarist Matthew Copley. The pair began dating in 2017 and wed in beautiful Malta on July 10, 2025.
“It was more magical than we both could have dreamed. We said I do under the Maltese skies in a family fairytale wedding brought to life by so many angels surrounding us. We are holding on to every memory from that moment, the love, the laughter, the happy tears and dancing till the sun came up,” she wrote.
The post The moment that changed Delta Goodrem’s life started with a “premonition” appeared first on The Australian Women’s Weekly.
