Madonna’s brother, Christopher Ciccone, has died at 63

AP Film Writer

Christopher Ciccone, a multihyphenate artist, dancer, designer and younger brother of Madonna, has died. He was 63.

Ciccone died Friday in Michigan, his representative Brad Taylor told The Associated Press Sunday. He had cancer.

Madonna posted a tribute to him on Instagram Sunday with a carousel of photos from over the years.

“He was the closest human to me for so long,” she wrote. “Its hard to explain our bond. 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.”

Madonna wrote that discovering dance in their small Midwestern town saved them both, and that their ballet teacher created a safe space for her brother to be gay.

A dancer since his youth, Ciccone was deeply intertwined with his sister’s rise in pop stardom in the 1980s, appearing in music videos like “Lucky Star,” art directing her Blond Ambition World Tour and serving as tour director for The Girlie Show tour. He also directed music videos for Dolly Parton and Tony Bennett.

“When it came to good taste, my brother was the Pope, and you had to kiss the ring to get his blessing,” Madonna wrote. “He was a painter a poet and a visionary. I admired him. He had impeccable taste. And a sharp tongue, Which he sometimes used against me but I always forgave him.”

In 2008, Ciccone released a bestselling autobiography called “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. For two decades, he was by her side, choreographing, directing, dressing and helping his sister. He also interior designed her homes in New York, Miami and Los Angeles. He said that it was a bit like a marriage at times.

“It was a double-edged sword,” he told Good Morning America in 2008. “Nobody was chaining me down to make — to stay.”

The book, and his no-filter descriptions of the exploits of his sister’s famous circle, took its toll on some of his Hollywood friendships too. Several years later, in 2012, around the launch of a shoe collection he designed, he told The Standard that he and his sister were “on a perfectly personable level” and in contact.

“I don’t work for her, and it’s better this way,” he said.

In recent years Ciccone relocated to Michigan’s Lower Peninsula to be closer to family. In 2016, Ciccone married Ray Thacker, a British actor, who was by his side when he died.

Madonna wrote that when he got sick, they found their way back to one another.

“I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore,” she wrote. “There will never be anyone like him. I know he’s dancing somewhere.”

Madonna also lost her stepmother, Joan Clare Ciccone, to cancer just a few weeks ago, and her older brother Anthony Ciccone in early 2023.