Madonna’s Sweet Tribute to Her Late Brother Christopher Shines a Light on Their Rocky Relationship

If you’ve followed Madonna closely over the years, then you know that her relationship with her brother, Christopher Ciccone , was anything but easy. After all, following his tell-all memoir about the singer in 2008, the two had a major falling out . But now, following Ciccone’s death at age 63 , the “Like a Virgin” singer is sharing what really happened between them since.

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“My brother Christopher is gone,” Madonna began her tribute to her late brother, who passed away on Oct. 4 from cancer, on Instagram . “He was the closest human to me for so long / It’s hard to explain our bond / But it grew out of an understanding that we were different and society was going to give us a hard time for not following the status quo.”

Madonna and her brother, who was three years younger than her, quickly bonded over their love for art and dance. “We took each other‘s hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood / In fact dance was a kind of superglue that held us together,” she wrote. “Discovering Dance in our small Midwestern town saved me and then my brother came along, and it saved him too / My ballet Teacher, also named Christopher- created a safe space for my brother to be Gay, a word that was not spoken or even whispered where we lived.”

Once they were older, Madonna moved to New York “to become a dancer,” and her brother soon followed.

“And again we took each other’s hands, and we danced through the madness of New York City!” she remembered. “We devoured Art and Music And Film like hungry animals / we were in the epicenter of all of these things exploding. We danced through the madness of the AIDS epidemic. We went to funerals and we cried, and we went dancing. We danced together on stage in the beginning of my career and eventually, he became the Creative Director, of many tours. When it came to good taste, my brother was the Pope, and you had to kiss the ring to get his blessing.”

“We defied the Roman Catholic Church, The Police, the Moral Majority and all Authority figures that got in the way of Artistic freedom!” she continued. “My brother was right by my side.”

Calling her brother a “painter a poet and a visionary,” Madonna says she “admired him.” “He had impeccable taste,” she wrote. “And a sharp tongue, Which he sometimes used against me but I always forgave him.”

“We soared the highest heights together and floundered in the lowest lows,” she reflected. “Somehow, we always found each other again and we held hands and we kept dancing.”

Madonna then talked about his battle with cancer in the last few years. “We did not speak for some time but when my brother got sick, we found our way back to each other,” she admitted.

But, despite their reconnection, his fight with cancer came to an end earlier this month. “I did my best to keep him alive as long as possible. He was in so much pain towards the end,” she wrote. “Once again, we held hands / we closed our eyes and we danced. Together.”

“I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore,” she said at the end of the tribute. “There will never be anyone like him. I know he’s dancing somewhere.💔”

Alongside the touching words, the singer a series of pictures of them together over the years, from sweet tender hugs to fashionable red carpet appearances.

In the comments, many of their famous friends are sending their condolences. “A beautiful tribute. ❤️” wrote Andy Cohen. “Beautiful,” wrote actress Juliette Lewis. “Thank you for sharing with us. ❤️”

As a reminder, Ciccone and Madonna’s relationship took a turn when he released his memoir, titled Life With My Sister Madonna . Among his confessions was that Madonna, is “bossy, sweaty, moody and, above all, mean,” per Page Six . In addition, Ciccone accused her of underpaying him and outing him on TV.

As a result, Ciccone and Madonna’s relationship unraveled. In 2017, Ciccone revealed his sister blackmailed him from the industry and made it impossible for him to get a job. “I could have written that book, the book about how horrifying she is or can be, but I didn’t write that book,” he told The Sun in 2017. “I was just looking for a little recognition for the work I’ve done for 20 years with her, that it wasn’t one person.”

We’re just glad they managed to make amends before it was too late.

Before you go, click here to see all the best celebrity memoirs you can read right now.