Entertainment

Madonna pays tribute to late brother and mother with graveside visit

Her brother – who was an an artist, dancer and designer – died age 63 earlier this month in Michigan after being diagnosed with cancer.

Madonna with her brother Christopher Ciccone (Julie Markes/AP)
Madonna with her brother Christopher Ciccone (Julie Markes/AP) (Julie Markes/AP)

Madonna has paid tribute to her late brother, Christopher Ciccone, with a visit to his graveside alongside her daughter Lourdes.

Her brother – who was an an artist, dancer and designer – died aged 63 earlier this month in Michigan after being diagnosed with cancer.

The US pop superstar, 66, posted photos to her Instagram Story, including one of Ciccone’s green marble gravestone, writing alongside it “homecoming”.

Christopher Ciccone, brother of Madonna (Chris Pizzello/AP)
Christopher Ciccone, brother of Madonna (Chris Pizzello/AP) (Chris Pizzello/AP)

She also visited the grave of her mother, Madonna Fortin Ciccone, who died in 1963 aged 30 following a breast cancer diagnosis when the singer was five years old.

The Material Girl singer shared a photo of her knelt beside a grave while wearing a pink and navy scarf around her head and black sunglasses – as well as image of red roses laid on the ground.

Her daughter Lourdes, 28, also posed for a photo with her grandmother’s gravestone while holding red flowers in her hand.

In another emotional black-and-white archive clip, the Grammy winner can be seen kneeling at her mother’s grave while her brother looks on, which she captioned: “Life is a circle.”

In the video, she says: “I wonder what she looks like now, just a bunch of dust, I’m going to get in right here, you’re going to bury me sideways.”

Madonna worked alongside her brother over the years, who appeared in her music videos such as Lucky Star, art directed her Blond Ambition World Tour and served as tour director for The Girlie Show tour.

Following his death, she said he was “the closest thing to me for so long” in a tribute post to Instagram.

Ciccone fell out with his sister in 2008, following the release of bestselling autobiography Life With My Sister Madonna in which he wrote about their strained relationship, her romantic entanglements as well as recollections from his time on tour with her.

Speaking about mending their disagreement prior to Ciccone’s death, Madonna added in her social media tribute post that the last few years had “not been easy” as they did not speak to each other for some time, but reconnected after he got ill.

She added: “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.”

During his career, Ciccone also directed music videos for Dolly Parton and Tony Bennett, and was an interior designer for her homes in New York, Miami and Los Angeles.