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

Ciccone died Friday in Michigan, his consultant Brad Taylor advised The Related Press Sunday. He had most cancers.

Madonna posted a tribute to him on Instagram Sunday with a carousel of photographs from over time.

“He was the closest human to me for therefore lengthy,” she wrote. “Its arduous to elucidate our bond. Nevertheless it grew out of an understanding that we have been totally different and society was going to offer us a tough time for not following the established order. We took one another’s fingers and we danced by way of the insanity of our childhood.”

Madonna wrote that discovering dance of their small Midwestern city saved them each, and that their ballet instructor created a secure house for her brother to be homosexual.

A dancer since his youth, Ciccone was deeply intertwined along with his sister’s rise in pop stardom within the Nineteen Eighties, showing in music movies like “Fortunate Star,” artwork directing her Blond Ambition World Tour and serving as tour director for The Girlie Present tour. He additionally directed music movies for Dolly Parton and Tony Bennett.

“When it got here to good style, my brother was the Pope, and also you needed 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 style. And a pointy tongue, Which he generally used towards me however I at all times forgave him.”

In 2008, Ciccone launched a bestselling autobiography referred to as “Life with My Sister Madonna” during which he wrote about their strained relationship, her romantic entanglements in addition to recollections from his time on tour together with her. For 20 years, he was by her aspect, choreographing, directing, dressing and serving to his sister. He additionally inside designed her houses in New York, Miami and Los Angeles. He stated that it was a bit like a wedding at occasions.

“It was a double-edged sword,” he advised Good Morning America in 2008. “No person was chaining me all the way down to make — to remain.”

The ebook, and his no-filter descriptions of the exploits of his sister’s well-known circle, took its toll on a few of his Hollywood friendships too. A number of years later, in 2012, across the launch of a shoe assortment he designed, he advised The Normal that he and his sister have been “on a wonderfully personable degree” and in touch.

“I don’t work for her, and it’s higher this manner,” he stated.

In recent times Ciccone relocated to Michigan’s Decrease Peninsula to be nearer to household. In 2016, Ciccone married Ray Thacker, a British actor, who was by his aspect when he died.

Madonna wrote that when he acquired sick, they discovered their method again to 1 one other.

“I’m glad he’s not struggling anymore,” she wrote. “There’ll by no means be anybody like him. I do know he’s dancing someplace.”

Madonna additionally misplaced her stepmother, Joan Clare Ciccone, to most cancers only a few weeks in the past, and her older brother Anthony Ciccone in early 2023.