Madonna’s brother, Christopher Ciccone, has died – the pop star reacts

According to reports, Christopher Ciccone died on Friday, October 4 after a long battle with cancer, which was confirmed by, among others, Hollywood reporter. Born on November 22, 1960 in Bay City, Michigan, Ciccone was one of Madonna’s younger siblings.

THR notes that Ciccone “died peacefully surrounded by her husband Ray Thacker and other loved ones.” TMZ reports that he died in Michigan and mentions that a few weeks ago, on September 26, 2024, Madonna just lost another family member – stepmother Joan Ciccone at the age of 81.

Best known as a designer and artist, Ciccone maintained a very strong presence in the 1990s thanks to his work as creative director for Madonna Blond Ambition world tour (1990) i Girly show tour (1993) – two very iconic eras for the pop star.

Unfortunately, there was an argument between the siblings, which led to the creation of Ciccone’s bomb book entitled Life with my sister Madonnapublished in 2008. In the book, Ciccone refers to an interview from 1991 Outsidesister publication, Advocatein which Madonna “overtook him”.

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Ciccone wrote in the seventh chapter of the book:

“In an apparent ruse to gain support for (Truth or dare documentary), ingratiating himself with his gay fans, says: “My brother Christopher is gay and he and I have always been the closest members of our family.”“

Madonna’s quote “outing” Ciccone continued:

“It’s funny. When he was really young, he was so beautiful and had girls around him, more than any of my brothers. I knew something was different, but it wasn’t clear to me. I just thought: I know it’s there. there are many girls around, but I don’t understand if he has a girlfriend. He was like a magnet for girls. They all seemed to like him incredibly and were close to him in a way I hadn’t seen men with women. “

“I’ll tell you when I find out,” Madonna’s quote continued in the book. “After I met Christopher (Flynn), I took my brother to ballet classes because he wanted to start learning to dance. I just saw something between them. I can’t even say exactly what, but then I thought, Oh, I understand. Oh, okay. He likes men too. It was an amazing discovery, but I haven’t told my brother anything yet. He’s two years younger than me, honey, I just felt something.

Ciccone described feeling “pissed off” at the time and emphasized that Madonna was “taking him out to the readers” Advocate“as ‘an ideal film promotion tool.’

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But by 2019, Ciccone said Radar on the Internet that he finally made peace with Madonna. He explained:

“We are calm now and we talked last week. I recently moved from Los Angeles back to Michigan where my father and family own a vineyard and winery.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include Madonna’s statement in response to the death of Christopher Ciccone, which you can read below.

On Sunday, October 6, Madonna published a heartbreaking post about Ciccone’s death. The statement reads:

“My brother Christopher is dead… He was the closest person to me for so long. Our bond is hard to explain, but it grew out of the understanding that we were different and society would give us a hard time for not following the rules of the status quo. We held hands and danced through the madness of our childhoods. In fact, dancing was a kind of superglue that held us together. Discovering dance in our small Midwestern town saved me, and then my brother came along and that saved him too.”

She added: “My ballet teacher, also Christopher, created a safe space for my brother to be gay. This word was not spoken or even whispered where we lived. When I finally got the courage to go to New York to become a gay dancer, my brother followed him and we held hands again and danced through the madness of New York!”

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Madonna’s statement continues:

“We devoured art, music and film like hungry animals. We were at the epicenter of it all, exploding. We danced through the madness of the AIDS epidemic. We went to funerals, cried and danced. We danced on stage together early in my career, and he eventually became my creative director on many tours. In terms of good taste, my brother was the pope and you had to kiss the ring to get his blessing.

“We opposed the Roman Catholic Church, the police, the moral majority and all authorities that stood in the way of artistic freedom!” she remembered. “My brother was right next to me. He was a painter, a poet and a visionary. I admired him. He had impeccable taste. And a sharp tongue that he sometimes used against me, but I always forgave him. We rose to the highest heights together and waded into the lowest valleys. Somehow miraculously, we always found each other, held hands and continued dancing.

“The last few years haven’t been easy. We didn’t talk for a while, but when my brother got sick, we found our way back to each other. I did everything in my power to keep him alive as long as possible. He was in so much pain towards the end. Once again we held hands, closed our eyes and danced together.

“I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore,” Madonna concluded. “There will never be anyone like him. I know he’s dancing somewhere.”