Madonna found ‘a way to forgive’ late brother Christopher Ciccone

Madonna is opening up about the healing she found after making peace with her late brother, Christopher Ciccone. 

The pop legend revealed on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast that the two reconciled before his death in October 2024, ending years of estrangement that began after he released his 2008 memoir Life With My Sister Madonna.

“It’s important to find a way to forgive even people that you perceive as your biggest enemies,” Madonna, 67, explained. 

“For a really long time, it was my brother, who died recently, because the hardest ones are the people that you feel like you're the closest to.”

She admitted that the rift left them out of touch for years, but his declining health eventually pushed them back into each other’s lives. 

“It was him being ill and reaching out to me and saying, ‘I need your help,’ and me having that moment like, ‘Am I going to help my enemy?’ That’s how it felt,” she recalled.

Ultimately, she chose to step in and support him, a decision she now describes as life-changing. 

“It was such a load off my back, such a weight that was removed,” she said.

“Baggage that I could put down to finally be able to be in a room with him and holding his hand, even if he was dying, and saying, ‘I love you and I forgive you.’ That was really important.”

Madonna also connected the reconciliation to her own health scare in 2023, when a severe bacterial infection left her in a medically induced coma. 

She remembered a vivid moment during that time, “I had a conscious moment and my mother appeared to me and she said, ‘Do you want to come with me?’ And I said, ‘No.’”

Waking up from that experience gave her clarity on what she needed to do.

“I realized that the ‘No’ was about me needing to forgive and make good with people that I still held grudges against,” she shared.

For Madonna, forgiveness not only allowed her to make peace with her brother but also gave her the chance to release years of pain and move forward with a lighter heart.