Kylie Minogue has some fun and dances on a table

**Honey** · March 17th, 2008, 05:11 AM

Three hours earlier the applause had been rapturous and her performance immaculate as Kylie Minogue was named Best International Female Artist at the Brit Awards.

Even as her delicate frame was swept aloft by Dr Who star David Tennant, who presented her with the Brit, Kylie had kept her composure.

Now, in the throb of Movida nightclub in London's West End, it was a rather different story. Kylie was doing something most un-Kylie – knocking back champagne with friends and dancing on the tables. She was having a ball.
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Table dancing! A rare glimpse of typically self-controlled Kylie Minogue as she partied the night away after scooping Best International Female at the Brit awards last month

For somebody whose persona is usually so rigidly controlled, it was a rare glimpse of Kylie the woman rather than Kylie the brand.

This was a Kylie we didn't usually see. But it may well be that this "private" exuberance was always intended to find its way into the Press – and to deliver a very clear message to one man, Will Baker, a message that said unmistakably: "Look how I'm thriving without you."

Will's absence from that party last month was as notable as it was intriguing. Barely a few months ago it would have been unthinkable.
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Kylie looking a little worse for wear towards the end of the post-Brits party

His name may not be familiar to any but the most ardent of Kylie's fans, but Will is her most enduringly significant other. It is no exaggeration to say that he created Kylie – or at least the version of her that millions have come to love, applaud and buy into.

For the best part of 15 years he has overseen every aspect of her styling.

It was Will who put her in the tiny gold hotpants that caused such a sensation when she sang Spinning Around.

It was Will who dressed her up like a show pony with ostrich feathers on her head and persuaded her into the rib-crushing corsetry that gave her a 16in waist.

It was Will who took the pop starlet and turned her into the ultimate Showgirl.

In short, it was Will who made her what we thought she always was.
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Good times: Kylie with Will Baker, her 'gay husband' and mentor, last October, before their relationship cooled off

He calls her "Dear" and goes under the grand title of creative director. She says that they are "soulmates" and calls him her "gay husband". He is a giggling consort and acolyte occupying that strange territory between friend and staff – omnipresent, until now.

Will's absence from Kylie's Brit triumph was not the first indication that all is not what it was between them. Just two weeks earlier, Will had been notable by his absence when she launched her Kylie At Home bed linen.

That, says one well-placed source, was how Kylie had wanted it: "She wanted to show she could do it alone."

Kylie's desire for a rethink has been influenced by two looming events: the beginning of a gruelling European tour and her 40th birthday on May 28. It is a landmark birthday for any woman but, given her health scares and heartaches, it is little wonder if the prospect should affect Kylie more than most.
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Girls next door: Kylie was joined at the high-spirited party by fellow ex-Neighbours star-turned singer Natalie Imbruglia, who recently split from husband Daniel Johns

Of course she looks fabulous. But while just getting there is cause for celebration, the reality is that Kylie at 40 will be on the same treadmill of performance and travel that she has toiled on for all her adult life – and no closer to finding fulfilment out of the spotlight.

According to one close to both: "Will has been such a support, but when two people spend too much time together there can be tension – and there has been tension. They have been spending a lot less time together recently."

Certainly Will and Kylie seem keen to establish their mutual independence.

For Will, 34, that means reminding people that he has a degree and that it is in theology, not fashion. It means establishing his own company – with the tongue-in-cheek name Never Trust A Stylist – and launching his own range of men's underwear.

And he is making it clear that Kylie is not his only celebrity client.

For Kylie it means launching products and celebrating success with a certain forced confidence. And for both it means letting their intense personal relationship cool to a workable professional pairing.
Whatever the simmering tensions, Will must fulfil his contractual obligation as creative director on Kylie's European tour.

What made Kylie dance on the table? How the singer's proving she can do without her 'gay husband' and mentor | the Daily Mail