With the passing of 63-year-old Christopher Gerard Ciccone, Madonna’s younger brother, the singer’s family has suffered yet another terrible loss.
Christopher, a dancer and art director, apparently passed away from cancer on Friday, October 4. His death is the most recent in a string of misfortunes that have befallen the family.
Christopher died “peacefully,” a spokesperson said, with his spouse by his side. His oldest brother, Anthony Ciccone, died last year at the age of 66 from throat cancer and respiratory failure. His stepmother, Joan Gustafson Ciccone, also passed away from cancer last month. Fans of the family may remember that in 1966, while both children were still very young, Madonna Louise Ciccone, the mother of Christopher and Madonna, sadly passed away from cancer.
Later, Christopher moved to New York City to help Madonna in the early going of her phenomenally successful music career. Before assuming increasingly important roles in his sister’s artistic pursuits, he danced in some of her early music videos, such as “Everybody” and “Lucky Star.”
According to reports, Christopher led production design for The Girlie Show in 1993 and was the art director for Madonna’s Blond Ambition World Tour.
In a moving social media message, Madonna expressed her grief on her younger brother’s passing by writing, “It’s hard to explain our bond.”
“We soared the highest heights and floundered in the lowest lows together,” she wrote in her statement.
We continued to dance and hold hands every time we crossed paths.
It has not been an easy few years.
We had a period of silence till my brother became ill. We managed to reconnect with one another.
As readers will remember, Madonna experienced a health scare of her own barely a year ago, needing a NARCAN injection to survive.
The 66-year-old was found unconscious following the onset of a bacterial infection that required hospitalization and a 48-hour medically induced coma.
She was placed on a ventilator for several days, and her relatives were told to “expect the worst.”
At the time, rumors circulated that Madonna had been using too many pills in an attempt to keep up with her 84-date global tour, which she had been overexerting herself for.
“Neither my physicians nor I anticipated that I would survive. That’s the reason I woke up with all of my kids around me,” Madonna subsequently said, reflecting on her horrific encounter. “I lost five days of my life, or I would have died. Actually, I have no idea where I was. I reasoned that I had to be there for my kids if you’re interested in learning my secret to survival. For them to survive, I must.