Madonna Finally Opens Up About Her Troubled Relationship With Her Late Brother

Madonna and her brother Christopher in the late 1990sMadonna is opening up about her complicated relationship with her late brother, Christopher Ciccone, who died last year. The Queen of Pop appeared on Monday’s episode of the podcast On Purpose With Jay Shetty, and in the wide-ranging interview, shared how she and her late sibling came to make amends following years of estrangement. “It’s important to find a way to forgive even people that you perceive as your biggest enemies,” she explained.“For a really long time, it was my brother, who died recently, because I think the hardest ones are the people that you feel like you’re the closest to ... the people that hurt you the most are the people you love the most.”She went on to note: “If someone you love deeply betrays you, and does something that shows that they have no consciousness in that moment that they made that choice to do that, it’s a bitter pill for me to swallow.” Madonna attends the 1998 Academy Awards with her brother, Christopher CicconeChristopher, one of Madonna’s seven siblings, died of pancreatic cancer in October 2024, at the age of 63.Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he was seen as one of his famous sister’s closest confidants, appearing as a backup dancer in the music video for her 1983 smash, Lucky Star, and collaborating with Madonna on her Blond Ambition and Girlie Show tours, as well as decorating her New York and Los Angeles homes. However, the pair reportedly fell out during Madonna’s eight-year marriage to British film director Guy Ritchie, which ended in divorce in 2008.That same year, Christopher published a tell-all book, Life With My Sister Madonna, in which he delved into his sister’s private life, alluding she’d undergone cosmetic surgery and sharing less-than-flattering details of her relationships with Guy as well as her first husband, actor Sean Penn. During her podcast interview, Madonna revealed that she and her brother didn’t speak for “years and years”, but said a turning point came when he became ill and reached out for her help. "The people that hurt you the most are the people you love the most," Madonna recalled of her yearslong estrangement from Ciccone.“It was such a load off my back, such a weight that was removed, baggage that I could put down, to finally be able to be in a room with him and holding his hand, even if he was dying, and saying, ‘I love you and I forgive you’,” she said. “That was really important.” Madonna’s own recent illness – a bacterial infection that kept her hospitalised for several days and prompted her to postpone her 2023 Celebration Tour – cemented her hope of putting her feud with her brother behind her. “I was almost there on the other side,” she recalled. “I had a conscious moment and my mother appeared to me and she said, ‘Do you want to come with me?’ And I said, ‘No.’“When I did eventually wake up, I realised that the ‘No’ was about me needing to forgive and make good with people that I still held grudges against.”Elsewhere in the interview, Madonna revealed the titles of two as-yet unreleased songs, Fragile and Forgive Yourself, from her upcoming album, which she said had been inspired in part by her late brother. Both tracks are believed to appear on her next full-length album, which has been touted as a sequel to 2005′s Confessions On A Dance Floor, and is slated for a 2026 release. Catch Madonna’s appearance on On Purpose With Jay Shetty here. Her comments on Christopher Ciccone begin around the 1:12:00 mark. READ MORE:Madonna Urges Pope Leo To Help The Children Of Gaza 'Before It's Too Late''If This Is A Joke, I'm Not Laughing': Madonna Blasts Trump's Latest Wild Claim About HimselfMadonna Reveals She And Elton John Have 'Buried The Hatchet' After Decades-Long Feud

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