Madonna's Siblings: All About Her 7 Brothers and Sisters

Meet Madonna’s seven siblings.

The “Vogue” singer grew up in a large family with four brothers and three sisters. Her father Silvio Ciccone and mother Madonna Louise Ciccone, after whom the Queen of Pop was named, welcomed six children together: Anthony, Martin, Madonna, Paula, Christopher and Melanie, before the matriarch passed away in 1963 from breast cancer. Madonna was five years old at the time of her mother’s death, a tragedy that is often reflected in her music.

“I’m sure it affected every decision I made and in some ways left me with a feeling of hunger and longing; a feeling of emptiness and fear of growing up loving things because they’ll leave you,” she previously said. Notice.

Her father remarried the family homemaker Joan in 1966, and the couple had two children: Jennifer and Maria.

While Madonna became one of the world’s biggest pop stars, her siblings continued to lead quiet lives out of the spotlight.

“If my mother hadn’t died and I’d grown up with a sense of wholeness and completeness and a family, I probably would have stayed in Michigan and become a teacher,” she once said. Rolling Stone.

So who are the Ciccone siblings? Here’s everything you need to know about Madonna’s seven siblings.

Madonna and her siblings grew up in Michigan

Madonna (center) practices with freshman cheerleaders at Adams High School in 1972.

Michael Ochs/Getty Archive

Madonna and her siblings grew up in Rochester Hills, Michigan, where Silvio worked as an optical engineer for Chrysler and General Dynamics and Joan ran a daycare out of their home.

After graduating from high school, Madonna stayed near her hometown to attend the University of Michigan on a dance scholarship before becoming a superstar. The award-winning musician spoke fondly of her roots, including when Jeff Bezos tweeted that he was looking for philanthropic ideas for financial support.

“@JeffBezos you, me, motor city. Let’s go and I’ll show you amazing opportunities for near-instant impact in one of the coolest cities in America #Detroit,” she wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).

They grew up in a religious family

Madonna at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984.

Sonia Moskowitz/Getty

Madonna’s parents were devout Catholics and religion played a large role in her and her siblings’ childhoods.

“I grew up with priests and nuns and I always looked up to them,” said the star NPR for Northern Colorado. “I mean, my grandmother’s kitchen was always full of priests and nuns. And, you know, it was all about the church, while everyone was drinking martinis. It was fantastic.”

Her religious upbringing was the inspiration for some of her most controversial work, including the music video for “Like a Prayer,” which featured burning crosses and erotic images of Jesus, and was condemned by Catholics, including the Vatican.

“Catholicism runs through my album,” said Madonna The New York Times a few years after the release of the song. “I struggle with the mystery and magic that surrounds it.”

Madonna’s brother Anthony died in 2023

Madonna and late brother Anthony Ciccone. getty splash news

Madonna’s eldest brother Anthony Ciccone died earlier this year from respiratory failure and throat cancer at the age of 66. The “4 Minutes” singer visited Ciccone shortly before his death on February 24, 2023.

The two siblings had a rocky relationship due to his longtime battle with addiction, but his younger sister supported him in his final months, a source previously told PEOPLE.

Madonna paid tribute to her brother in an Instagram Story following his death in which the pair posed for a black-and-white ’80s photo alongside their siblings.

“Thank you for inspiring me as a young girl,” she wrote, adding, “You planted many important seeds,” she captioned the post, crediting him with introducing her to Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Buddhism, Taoism, Charles Bukowski, Richard Brautigan, Jack Kerouac and expansive thinking.

Her brother Christopher worked as her art director, designer and interior decorator

Madonna and Christopher Ciccone.

Jody Cortes/Sygma/Sygma/Getty

Madonna and her younger brother Christopher worked side by side in the early stages of her career. He appeared as a backup dancer in one of her earliest videos, “Lucky Star,” and then worked as the artistic director of Madonna’s Blond Ambition World Tour 1990 and lead production design for her tour in 1993, The Girlie Show.

He also migrated to interior design in 1985, when Madonna asked him to buy furniture for her new apartment.

“She just got married to Sean [Penn] and they had a two-room apartment. She needed help buying furniture and that’s where my interest in filling the space, designing the room and working with the client started,” Ciccone told Northern Express.

He went on to design restaurants in Manhattan, luxury apartments in Miami, and even furniture for presidential presidents.

Christopher died in 2024

Madonna and Christopher Ciccone.

Madonna/Instagram

Christopher died of cancer on October 4, 2024. According to his rep, he passed “peacefully” with his husband, Ray Thacker, by his side.

“My brother Christopher is gone. He was the closest person to me for so long. It’s hard to explain our relationship. But it grew out of understanding that we are different and that society will give us a hard time because we don’t follow the status quo,” Madonna wrote on Instagram in an emotional tribute.

She continued: “He was a painter, a poet and a visionary. I admired him. He had impeccable taste. And a sharp tongue. There will never be anyone like him. I know he’s dancing somewhere.”

Madonna co-wrote the song with her brother-in-law

Madonna on Billboard’s Women In Music 2016; Joe Henry at the 20th Annual Americana Honors and Awards.

Ilya S. Savenok/Getty; Erika Goldring/Getty

Madonna’s brother-in-law Joe Henry, who is a singer-songwriter and married to her sister Melanie, helped write her second single “Don’t Tell Me” from her 2000 album. Music.

Madonna got the inspiration for the song when Melanie sent her Henry’s demo of a song called “Stop”, a Evita the star admired the lyrics.

“My [demo] the version was written in about 20 minutes and I did not revise it. I let it sit until there was an explosion,” Henry said Diversity. He added that “Madonna heard his pop sensibility and carved the chorus out of an incidental verse from my original recording. That repetition gave it weight, expanded it, sharpened the hook I barely pointed towards. It proves her gift for taking something rather dull and turning it into something memorable.”

The song, also co-produced by Mirwais Ahmadzai, peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2001, and Henry later released his own version of the song on his 2001 album. Scar.

Madonna’s brother Mario and sister Paula tried their hand at the entertainment industry

Madonna’s sister Paula Ciccone in 1985.

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty

When Madonna dropped out of the University of Michigan in 1978 to pursue her dreams in New York, Paula followed a few years later, with ambitions for her own career in show business.

Paula took on behind-the-scenes jobs, including serving as effects coordinator I love trouble (1994) and visual effects work for Space Jam (1996), before returning to Michigan and settling down.

Madonna’s brother Mario, who plays guitar, also broke into the music industry like his older sister, he said Northern Express that he began seriously learning how to become a songwriter when he turned 20.

“I was on the phone with my sister one day and she encouraged me to come to LA to check it out for a year and see if I could find some people there to play with. I packed up all my stuff and moved to LA with my drummer friend.”

He ended up playing in several bands that first year and landed a demo deal with Warner Brothers.

“I flew to Toronto and went into the studio, reworked the two songs I sent them and recorded two additional songs,” he said. “I came back to LA only to find out the label wanted me to remix them again. Basically, they wanted me to change my songs and I didn’t want to do that.”

Mario simultaneously worked at Maverick Records and climbed the corporate ladder in sales and marketing.

“I love making music and I started to see how the industry works and I didn’t want to be on the artist side anymore,” he said.

Mario stayed to work at Maverick, and slowly gave up his musical ambitions.

“I decided to end up where I am now because I wanted to be involved in this industry for the long term, helping bands and breaking new bands.”

Madonna’s dad started a family vineyard where several of her siblings work

Madonna and her father. madonna/instagram

When they retired, Silvio and Joan founded Ciccone Vineyard and Winery in Suttons Bay, Michigan in 1995.

It was a decades-long passion of Silvi, who learned the wine-making process from his own father and hoped to one day pass the tradition on to his children.

Three of Madonna’s siblings work in the family business. Madonna’s youngest sibling, Mario, is the vineyard manager, her sister Paula is an award-winning winemaker, and her sister Jennifer helps oversee the business.

Madonna’s sister Melanie attended Rocco’s christening in London

Madonna and Guy Ritchie at the christening of son Roccos; Melanie Henry at Inverness Airport in Scotland.

David Cheskin – PA Images/PA Images/Getty; Stefan Rousseau – PA Images/PA Images/Getty

When Madonna and her second husband Guy Ritchie baptized their son Rocco in 2000 at Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland, Melanie and her husband were present.

Madonna and Melanie have remained close over the years, with the pop star even singing her sister’s praises during a pre-show prayer at The Wiltern in Los Angeles.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am so happy that my sister Melanie is in this room right now,” Madonna said in an Instagram video. “No one knows better than her what it’s like to survive our toxic and broken Michigan family.”

She also showed her appreciation for her brother-in-law by saying, “Her wonderful, incredibly talented husband, Joe Henry, who is an amazing singer, songwriter, human being, and I’ve written many songs with, it’s a pleasure and an honor to be with you.”

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Source: HIS Education