Madonna Shares News of Her Oldest Brother’s Passing in Moving Post

Madonna spoke out, addressed, and confirmed the rumors that her oldest brother Anthony Ciccone had indeed recently died.

Ciccone was 66 and died in Suttons Bay, Michigan on Feb. 24, according to his obituary. He is described as an “insatiable reader” and “a deep lover of music with a wanderer’s spirit” in the obituary, which also details his troubles and notes him as being “troubled and distant from his own, valued family.”

“Though a loner ––isolated throughout much of his adult life by the addiction that contributed to his early demise–– he was nonetheless enlivened by community and a sense of belonging,” it reads.

Madonna paid tribute to her brother in an Instagram Story after his death that featured the pair posing for a black-and-white photo in the 1980s alongside their siblings. “Thank you for blowing my mind as a young girl,” she wrote, adding: “You planted many important seeds.”

The pop star credited Anthony with introducing her to Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Buddhism, Taoism, Charles Bukowski, Richard Brautigan, Jack Kerouac and expansive thinking.

#Madonna pays tribute to her older brother Anthony on IG Stories: “You planted many important seeds” #RIP 💐 pic.twitter.com/SQtPLwJCZ6

— Rhino Records (@Rhino_Records) February 27, 2023

Madonna’s brother-in-law, Joe Henry, announced Ciccone’s passing over the weekend, also on Instagram. “I’ve known him since I was 15, in the spring of our lives in Michigan so many years now gone. As brother Dave Henry (who took this photograph) notes here, Anthony was a complex character; and god knows: we tangled in moments, as true brothers can,” shared Henry, who is married to Madonna’s sister Melanie. “But I loved him and understood him better than I was sometimes willing to let on. But trouble fades; and family remains — with hands reached across the table. Farewell, then, brother Anthony.”