Devastating Death or Fresh Start? Madonna Talks About Her Sibling’s Sudden Passing in a Shocking Tell-All!
In a touching and deeply sorrowful moment that has caused the internet to explode, pop icon Madonna is paying tribute to her dear brother, Christopher Ciccone, whose too-early death has sent shockwaves through Hollywood and affected fans the world over. Madonna’s account of the moment she learned of Christopher’s death—happening in the very week that she was set to honor him with a VL album release—renders a portrait of a sister who in many ways saw the world through her brother’s eyes.
Madonna is known around the world as the Queen of Pop, but also as an enigmatic figure with an electric personality. In the wake of the recent death of her younger brother, she opens the curtain to share a glimpse of their lives shared as childhood partners in crime. She sheds light on the important role of her brother, a mostly unsung artist, in her life. In the death of her brother, Madonna trusts the world with a glimpse into both of their lives, as an act of catharsis, as both a means to honor him and to make sense of the tragedy.
Madonna’s Instagram is full of lively posts that pull in comments to the umpteenth degree. But then the icon got serious. She delivered a heartfelt tribute that turned her popular social media account into a virtual shrine for a day. The Lehigh Valley adopted daughter soft-focus instantly iconic images of her and her late bro, followed by the words, “My brother Christopher is gone. He was the closest human to me for so long.” Madge’s is a red-carpet revolutionary moment if ever there was one. And she ain’t a rookie when it comes to pullin’ a gambit on the red carpet.
Growing up in a town so far removed from the glamour of global celebrity, one might imagine that the very act of moving would distance the M and her progenitor from the academic tutelage of a mother and the emotional ministrations of a father. It doesn’t seem to have worked that way, and the Mia-centric way that the film opens assures us that the formative years of Madonna’s life were spent pretty much half her time with her and half her time without her. Madonna says, “Dance was a way for us to bond and express ourselves.” Would that we could see the home movies—what a voyeuristic treat that would be—in which these two bonded through what Mia would later come to call a common language, that of dance.
Madonna’s tribute makes it clear that, no matter their ups and downs, Christopher had a key role in her life that couldn’t be replaced—one of family, of course, but it was also one of a muse, and Madonna credits him with being an influence in her life because of his “impeccable” taste and because he is, and has always been, someone who isn’t afraid to speak their mind.
In a twist that could have come straight from a riveting Hollywood script, Madonna recently shared that she and her son Christopher had not had a relationship for several years, but then, in the midst of Christopher’s serious health crisis, they “found [their] way back to each other.” This heart-tugging moment, with all its narrative potential, has set some serious payola for the star and prompted even more serious debates over her recent vulnerability. But it is also a declaration of family values, a moment of forgiveness and rediscovery against all odds.
Christopher has passed, and his husband Ray was with him when he died, said a representative for the family. The media is awash with speculation about the “why” of this tragic occurrence. Yet much attempts to divine the cause (as if that might somehow salve the hurt) come with the dual danger of impinging upon the family’s privacy and obscuring the potent love story at the core of this heartbreaking tale.
Madonna ends her post with an introspective “There will never be anyone like him.” And she always makes us think with her words. These sometimes seem more like lyrics than captions, and this one is no exception. It’s steeped in personal meaning, yet its larger message is nearly universal: Life is a dance. It’s a profound ebullience that—when you’re lucky—takes you to a moment when the beat connects so perfectly with every fiber and bit of your being that there’s no way you could not feel it.
Knowing this, is the post signaling a new era? Madonna, for her part, doesn’t owe us a fresh burst of self-confidence to accompany her forthcoming (as yet unannounced) projects. And yet, self-confidence, like the elusive divine energy of life, is hard to come by.
