Christopher Ciccone dead: Madonna’s younger brother dies aged 63 as tributes pour in for ‘talented’ artist
MADONNA’S younger brother Christopher Ciccone has died aged 63, his publicist has revealed.
The two worked closely throughout the star’s career, but experienced a fall-out in 2008 with Christopher’s tell-all book “Life with My Sister Madonna”.
His death on October 4 after a battle with cancer comes after their stepmother died on September 24 – also from cancer.
Christopher worked as a designer, artist and director.
He was once Madonna’s closest sibling and began his career as her assistant, dresser, stylist and artistic director.
They grew up together in Michigan, learning to dance with each other.
Christopher then followed the star to New York, where she started her journey to worldwide fame.
But when Christopher wrote up his New York Times bestselling book about his relationship with his sister, it caused a wedge between the pair.
The brother called the Material Girl hitmaker “a middle-class girl who propagates the story that she landed in Times Square with just a pair of ballet shoes and $35 to her name”.
But he claimed this was “pure mythology and the further she progresses, the more mythological her life story becomes.”
Like their other brothers, Christopher too struggled with alcohol and drug abuse – and Madonna even paid for some of his rehab.
In 2003 she dropped him as her tour director.
And in 2012 his relationship with his performer sister appeared to be on the mend.
He told the Evening Standard at the time: “[We are] on a perfectly personable level right now. As far as I’m concerned, we’re good.
“We are in contact with each other, although I haven’t seen her for a long time.
“We’re back to being a brother and sister. I don’t work for her, and it’s better this way.”
Christopher also expressed pride for his sister, differing to his 2008 book.
He gushed: “I couldn’t be more proud of her. She is a force to be reckoned with. Does she have Barbra Streisand’s voice? No.
“Can she dance like Martha Graham? Probably not. But the combination of her abilities has made her great, and left a huge legacy for her, and through her, for me. So yeah, God bless her.”
One friend said Christopher was “an extremely talented man with a wicked sense of humor”.
In 2016, he married British hairdresser Ray Thacker.
In 2017, Christopher did an exclusive interview with The Sun and accused the pop queen of blacklisting him in Hollywood — and says he could have written another tell-all book about just how “horrific” she is.
He said: “I could have written that book, the book about how horrifying she is or can be, but I didn’t write that book.
“I was just looking for a little recognition for the work I’ve done for 20 years with her, that it wasn’t one person.”
In his 2008 book, Christopher told how his sister was bossy, sweaty, moody and, above all, mean.
Both still deeply scarred by their mother’s death in 1963, Madonna had brought Christopher to New York and employed him — but also demeaned and underpaid him and, he claimed, even outed him as gay on television.
Reflecting on the row, Christopher says: “When I got back to LA my 500 acquaintances suddenly turned out to be four friends.
“She’s quite powerful in Los Angeles, in the industry. I was working in the industry doing music videos and tours and it was difficult to get work, if not impossible.”
In his book, Christopher also wrote savagely about Madonna’s sexual partners — actor Sean Penn was “intense”, former personal trainer Carlos Leon “thick” and Brit film director Guy Ritchie “a poseur”.
He adds: “I haven’t spoken to any of those guys and nor do I wish to.
“There’s not a single word in that book that isn’t true. If it hadn’t been, I’d have been sued.”