Madonna has broken her silence after her brother, Christopher Ciccone, died aged 63. Ciccone “died peacefully” of cancer in Michigan on Friday, October 4, his rep told New York Post.
‘He was the closest human to me for so long’
Madonna has now remembered her brother in a moving Instagram post. “My brother Christopher is gone. He was the closest human to me for so long,” she wrote, sharing a carousel of photos of her brother, and the two of them.
“Its hard to explain our bond,” Madonna continued. “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.We took each other‘s hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood”.
She added, “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.”
Madonna described how the two of them “danced through the madness of New York City” and “devoured Art and Music And Film like hungry animals”. She described themselves as the “epicenter of all of these things exploding.”
“We danced through the madness of the AIDS epidemic,” Madonna wrote. “We went to funerals and we cried, and we went dancing. We danced together on stage in the beginning of my career and eventually, he became the Creative Director, of many tours. When it came to good taste, my brother was the Pope, and you had to kiss the ring to get his blessing.”
She added, “We defied the Roman Catholic Church, The Police, the Moral Majority and all Authority figures that got in the way of Artistic freedom! My brother was right by my side.”
Madonna described her brother as “a poet and a visionary,” adding that he had “impeccable taste” and “a sharp tongue”. “We soared the highest heights together And floundered in the lowest lows. Somehow, we always found each other again and We held hands and we kept dancing,” she wrote.
“The last few years have not been easy. We did not speak for sometime but When my brother got sick. We found our way back to each other,” she continued. “I did my best to keep him alive as long as possible. He was in so much pain towards the end”.
“Once again, we held hands We closed our eyes and we danced.Together. I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore. There will never be anyone like him. I know he’s dancing somewhere,” she concluded.