Madonna’s brother and designer was 63

Christopher Ciccone, an artist, interior designer and Madonna’s younger brother, died on Friday. The Hollywood Reporter has learned. He was 63.

According to a statement from Ciccone’s representative, Ciccone had battled cancer and died peacefully surrounded by his husband, Ray Thacker, and other family members.

Ciccone, who started out as a dancer and choreographer, used his talents to support Madonna’s budding career and became a dresser and creative advisor to his superstar sister. He also directed music videos and tours, including Madonna’s The Girlie Show world tour in 1993. And he was the art director for her Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990.

He then worked as an interior designer, shoe and furniture designer and artist and wrote the bestseller of 2008 Living with my sister Madonnawhich led to reports that arguments broke out between the siblings.

Ciccone claimed that Madonna outed him in a 1991 interview with Ciccone The lawyerwhere she identified him as “gay” and he accused Madonna’s ex-husband Guy Ritchie of being homophobic. He said the “turning point” in their relationship came when she took cameras to her mother’s grave for her 1991 documentary. truth or Dare.

“I kept it to myself, but I thought, ‘Okay, now there are no limits.’ You know, my mother is now a minor character – a little player in her life, her life story, and it hurt me,” he said Good morning America in 2008. “And my opinion of her changed in that moment. I never said anything about it.”

He added: “I think ultimately she’s a lonely person and unfortunately it’s really lonely at the top.”

Madonna’s longtime representative Liz Rosenberg told the Associated Press at the time that the artist had not read the tell-all story but found it “very disturbing” that Christopher “decided to sell a book based on his sister.”

“I have to assume that she has come to terms with the fact that they don’t have a close and loving relationship,” Rosenberg said. “And with the publication of the book, I expect the likelihood of something like that ever happening will disappear.”

But in interviews in 2012, Ciccone indicated that they had patched things up. “For me, our relationship is fine,” he told CBS News.

He added The Evening Standard: “We are in contact with each other, even though I haven’t seen her for a long time. We are a brother and a sister again. I don’t work for them and it’s better that way. …I couldn’t be prouder of her. She is a force to be reckoned with. Does she have the voice of Barbra Streisand? No. Can she dance like Martha Graham? Probably not. But the combination of their skills made them great and left a great legacy for them and, through them, for me. So yeah, God bless her.”

Madonna later remembered Ciccone in an Instagram post on Sunday, looking back on their life together and describing him as “the person closest to me for so long.” “We found each other again.”

“It’s hard to explain our bond. But it came from the understanding that we were different and society would make it difficult for us if we didn’t follow the status quo,” Madonna wrote next to a carousel of photos of Ciccone. “We held hands and danced through the madness of our childhood. 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 neither spoken nor whispered among us. When I finally had the courage to go to New York to become a dancer. My brother followed him. And again we held hands and danced through the madness of New York City!”

She added: “We defied the Roman Catholic Church, the police, the moral majority and all authority figures who stood in the way of artistic freedom!” My brother was right by my side. He was a painter, poet and visionary. I admired him. He had impeccable taste. And a sharp tongue that he sometimes used against me, but I always forgave him. We climbed the highest heights together and failed at the lowest depths. Somehow we always found each other and we held hands and kept dancing.”

“The last few years have not been easy. We didn’t speak to each other for a while, but when my brother got sick we found each other again. I did my best to keep him alive as long as possible. Towards the end he was in so much pain. Once again we held hands, closed our eyes and danced. Together. I’m glad he’s no longer suffering. There will never be anyone like him. I know he’s dancing somewhere.”

Ciccone designed commercial interiors for restaurants in New York City, Miami and Los Angeles, the corporate boxes for London’s O2 Arena and a luxury condominium complex in Miami Beach.

His furniture design for Bernhardt Furniture was selected for use in President Bill Clinton’s New York office.

Christopher Gerard Ciccone was born on November 20, 1960 in Pontiac, Michigan, the fifth child and third son of Madonna Louise and Silvio Patrick Ciccone. He grew up in Rochester, Michigan.

He studied dance and attended college at Western Michigan and Oakland universities. He then moved to New York City, where he worked with Madonna.

In his final years, he moved back to Michigan, near family members involved in his father’s Suttons Bay-based wine company, Ciccone Vineyards.

In 2016, he married Thacker, a British actor living in Los Angeles.

In addition to Thacker and Madonna, Ciccone is survived by his father; other siblings Martin, Paula, Melanie, Jennifer and Mario; and nieces, nephews and cousins.

Ciccone and Madonna’s stepmother Joan Ciccone died of cancer in September and her brother Anthony died in early 2023.

12:50 p.m This story has been updated with Madonna’s tribute to her brother.