‘Closest human to me’: Madonna’s double family tragedy

Madonna’s younger brother Christopher CIccone has died. Photo / @madonna / Instagram
Madonna’s brother has died.
The singer, 66, is mourning the loss of her younger sibling, Christopher Ciccone, who died in Michigan on October 4 after battling cancer, his representative confirmed to TMZ.
Ciccone was 63.
In a heartbreaking tribute shared to her Instagram on Monday, Madonna described her brother as “the closest human to me for so long”.
“It’s hard to explain our bond but it grew out of an understanding that we were different and society was going to give us a hard time for not following the status quo,” she continued.
“We took each other’s hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood. In fact dance 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 it saved him too.
“My ballet teacher, also named Christopher, created a safe space for my brother to be gay. A word that was not spoken or even whispered where we lived. When I finally got the courage to go to New York to become a dancer, my brother followed. And again we took each other’s hands, and we danced through the madness of New York City.”
She added that Ciccone was the “Pope” of “good taste”, as well as “a painter, a poet, a visionary”.
“We defied the Roman Catholic Church, the police, the Moral Majority and all authority figures that got in the way of artistic freedom,” she went on.
“My brother was right by my side … I admired him. He had impeccable taste. And a sharp tongue, which he sometimes used against me but I always forgave him.
“Somehow, we always found each other again and we held hands and we kept dancing. The last few years have not been easy. We did not speak for some time but when my brother got sick, we found our way back to each other. I did my best to keep him alive as long as possible. He was in so much pain towards the end.
“I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore. There will never be anyone like him. I know he’s dancing somewhere.”
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Ciccone and Madonna were very close in the early days of her career, and she hired him as one of her backing dancers.
He later became her show designer, backstage dresser, the art director for her 1990 Blonde Ambition world tour, and the tour director for 1993′s The Girlie Show.
Ciccone – who also worked as an interior designer and directed music videos for Tony Bennett and Dolly Parton – fell out with his superstar sibling when he released his best-selling book, Life With My Sister Madonna, in 2008. The two eventually reconciled.
In 2012, he released his own footwear line, the Ciccone Collection.
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The news comes just weeks after Madonna’s stepmother, Joan Ciccone, died from a “very aggressive cancer”.
The 81-year-old – who was married to the singer’s father Silvio Ciccone, now 93 – passed away “peacefully” on September 24 after a brief bout of ill health.
“Joan Clare Ciccone passed away peacefully early in the morning of September 24th, 2024, after a brief encounter with a very aggressive cancer. She will be terribly missed by her family and friends whose lives she enriched with her enthusiasm, joy and love,” a memorial shared online at the time read.
Joan married Silvio in 1966 following the death of his first wife, Madonna’s mother – who shared the same name as the singer – and became stepmother to their six children. Joan and Silvio had three children of their own, including a son who died shortly after birth.
“She took special joy in her grandkids later in life and with the grim cancer prognosis lamented that she was sad she would not see them marry and have kids of their own,” the obituary added.
Madonna’s mother died in 1963, when the star was just 5 years old, after a battle with breast cancer.
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In August, it was revealed that Mariah Carey’s mother Patricia and estranged sister Alison had died on the same day.
The 55-year-old singer told People in a statement: “My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend. Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day.
“I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed.”
– Additional reporting by NZ Herald.