Madonna's Brother Christopher Ciccone Dies at 63

Madonna is weathering back-to-back losses, learning the week after she lost her stepmother that her beloved brother Christopher Ciccone has died at 63.

Christopher's October 4 death in Michigan after a cancer battle was confirmed by his husband. People magazine reports her stepmom Joan died September 24 at 81 following a brief bout with aggressive cancer.

Madonna's brother was always special to her, even following her to NYC from Michigan back in the day.

Inadvertently outing her brother in a groundbreaking 1991 interview with LGBTQ+ newsmagazine The Advocate, she spoke of how members of the queer community always made her feel seen, saying, "It's not conscious, it just happened. My brother Christopher's gay, and he and I have always been the closest members of my family."

Christopher, at the time an aspiring dancer as Madonna had been, crashed with her in NYC, frequently performing as one of her backing dancers at the dawn of her solo career in the early '80s. Along with stylist and dancer Erika Belle, Ciccone appears in his sister's iconic "Lucky Star" video, and can be seen in numerous TV performances from around that time.

In a 1993 interview on the Australian talk show "Hinch," Ciccone humbly conceded, "At that point, I was really just concerned about paying rent. So, it was really just dancing around. I mean, it was nothing specific or, frankly, that interesting."

But his role increased, and he admitted, "You just sort of get caught in the movement upward."

In 1989, Ciccone's painting of a primitive Catholic Madonna figure adorned the cover of the 12" single of his sister's "Like a Prayer." As it was released during her divorce from Sean Penn, the figure bore "MLVC" above it — representing Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone — with one wayward "P" for Penn having fallen away.

For his work on her most important tour, 1990's Blond Ambition, he was credited as artistic director. Three years later, for her Girlie Show outing, his credit read, "Entire Production Directed & Designed by Christopher Ciccone."

He also directed music videos for Albita, Dolly Parton, and Tony Bennett in the '90s.

Ciccone settled into a career as an interior decorator, his work on his sister's New York apartment the subject of an Architectural Digest cover in October 1991. His dual role as family member and employee led to discord between the siblings, as was extensively aired in his tell-all memoir "Life with My Sister Madonna" in 2008. The book put their relationship on ice for years, but by all accounts, they had reconciled long ago.

Upon the launch of his own lifestyle brand in 2012, Ciccone told The Evening Standard, "As far as I’m concerned, we’re good. We are in contact with each other, although I haven’t seen her for a long time. We’re back to being a brother and sister. I don’t work for her, and it’s better this way."

He was preceded in death by his mother during his childhood, by his brother Anthony just last year, and by his stepmother Joan last week.

Ciccone is survived by his husband, actor Ray Thacker; by his father; by his four siblings and two half-siblings; and by many nieces and nephews.