Artist, inside designer and Madonna‘s brother, Christopher Ciccone, died Friday, Oct. 4, on the age of 63, The Hollywood Reporter has discovered.
Ciccone had been battling most cancers and died “peacefully,” in line with a household assertion despatched to THR from Ciccone’s rep, which added that he died “surrounded by” his husband Ray Thacker and “family members.”
Ciccone, who obtained his begin as a dancer and choreographer, used his abilities to assist Madonna’s rising profession, turning into dresser and inventive advisor to his famous person sister. He additionally directed music vidoes and excursions, together with Madonna’s The Girlie Present world tour in 1993. And he was the artwork director for her 1990 Blond Ambition world tour.
He went on to work as an inside, footwear and furnishings designer and artist. He additionally wrote the 2008 best-selling e book Life With My Sister Madonna, which led to experiences that the siblings had had a falling out.
Ciccone claimed Madonna outed him in a 1991 interview with The Advocate, the place she recognized him as “homosexual,” and he accused Madonna’s ex-husband Man Ritchie of being homophobic. And he stated the “turning level” within the siblings’ relationship was when she introduced cameras to their mom’s grave for her documentary Fact or Dare.
“I stored it inside however I believed to myself, ‘OK, there are not any boundaries now.’ You recognize, my mom’s now grow to be a facet — a bit participant in her life, life story, and it damage me,” he informed Good Morning America in 2008. And my, my opinion of her altered at that second. I by no means stated something about it.”
He added, “I believe, finally, she’s a lonely individual and, sadly, it, it actually is lonely on the high.”
Madonna’s longtime rep Liz Rosenberg informed the Related Press on the time that the artist didn’t learn the tell-all however discovered it “very upsetting” that Christopher “determined to promote a e book primarily based on his sister.”
“I must assume she has come to phrases with the truth that they don’t have a detailed and loving relationship,” Rosenberg stated. “And with the e book popping out, I assume that can take away the probabilities of that ever taking place.”
However in 2012 interviews with The Night Customary and CBS Information, Ciccone indicated they’d patched issues up.
“Our relationship is okay so far as I’m involved,” he informed CBS Information.
He added to The Night Customary, “We’re in touch with one another, though I haven’t seen her for a very long time. We’re again to being a brother and sister. I don’t work for her, and it’s higher this fashion. I couldn’t be extra pleased with her. She is a drive to be reckoned with. Does she have Barbra Streisand’s voice? No. Can she dance like Martha Graham? In all probability not. However the mixture of her skills has made her nice, and left an enormous legacy for her, and thru her, for me. So yeah, God bless her.”
Ciccone did business inside design for eating places in New York Metropolis, Miami and Los Angeles, the company packing containers for London’s O2 enviornment and a Miami Seashore luxurious apartment improvement.
His furnishings design for Bernhardt Furnishings was chosen for use in President Invoice Clinton’s New York workplace.
Christopher Gerard Ciccone was born in Pontiac, Michigan on Nov. 20, 1960, the fifth baby and third son of Madonna Louise and Silvio Patrick Ciccone, rising up in Rochester, Michigan.
Finding out dance and attending school at Western Michigan and Oakland universities, he moved to New York Metropolis, the place he labored alongside his older sister, Madonna.
In his latter years he moved again to Michigan, near relations who’re concerned in his father’s winemaking firm Ciccone Vineyards, in Suttons Bay, Michigan, close to Traverse Metropolis, Michigan.
In 2016 Ciccone married Thacker, a British actor dwelling in Los Angeles.
Along with Thacker and Madonna, Ciccone is survived by his father; siblings Martin, Paula, Melanie, Jennifer and Mario and nieces, nephews and cousins.