Madonna has opened up about family trauma and hinted at a rift with her eldest daughter Lourdes Leon in a new interview.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Interview magazine, the 67-year-old admitted that her new album, Confessions II, was inspired by the deaths of her brother Christopher Ciccone and her stepmother Joan.
‘I had a lot of stuff going on in my life personally. My brother was very, very, very ill, and my stepmother, with whom I’d had a very traumatic relationship throughout my entire childhood, had just died,’ she told the publication.
‘It’s hard for me to write a song about nothing. I have to tell a story. So I wrote about a lot of family trauma, and then we started making dance music.’
The Queen of Pop then hinted that she may have had issues with daughter Lourdes, who is featured as a co-writer on the record.
‘The song I wrote with my daughter, Lola. She approached me about writing a song together as a way to heal our relationship. It was a really important moment, and it solidified the idea that now is the time to make this record,’ she said cryptically.
Madonna has opened up about family trauma and hinted at a rift with her eldest daughter Lourdes Leon in a new interview
‘Well, all these symbolic things happened. My step-mother died, my brother was ill, my brother died, my daughter approached me… you know what I mean?’ she continued, before explaining that she used the new album to get these topics ‘off her chest’.
While Madonna and Lourdes, 29, are close and often collaborate together, the pair have touched on their issues in past interviews.
In 2021, Lourdes called her mother a ‘control freak’ and admitted that she paid for her own college tuition and first apartment to escape her.
‘We don’t get any handouts in my family. Obviously, I grew up with extreme privilege. There’s no denying that,’ she explained to Interview magazine.
‘But I think my mom saw all these other kids of famous people, and she was like, “My kids are not going to be like this.”
‘Also, I feel like if your parents pay for things, then it gives them leverage over you. My mom is such a control freak, and she has controlled me my whole life. I needed to be completely independent from her as soon as I graduated high school.’
In a 2019 interview with Vogue, Madonna praised her ‘insanely talented’ eldest child but said that she lacked the same drive that had made her a household name.
Since branching out on her own, Lourdes has found work as a model, a celebrity socialite, and as an indie musician.
The 67-year-old admitted that Lourdes approached her about writing a song together to ‘heal’ their relationship
Lourdes currently works as a model and musician after escaping from her ‘control freak’ mother once she started college, which she claims she paid for herself
The pair appear to have mended their relationship, with Lourdes even appearing in Madonna’s latest music video
She recently appeared in her mother’s Confessions II short film, in addition to co-writing a track from the album.
Madonna also had a tumultuous relationship with her late brother Christopher, who passed away in 2024 at age 63 following a battle with cancer.
‘My brother Christopher is gone. He was the closest human to me for so long,’ she wrote on Instagram following his death.
‘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.
‘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.’
Christopher worked as his sister’s backup dancer, personal dresser and art director until their very public feud erupted in 2000.
He described himself as being the ‘one person’ who could take it when the singer screamed at him backstage and how he was the only one in her circle who knew the truth about her past, which she frequently ‘mythologised’.
Madonna also admitted that her new album, Confessions II, was inspired by ‘family trauma’, including the death of her brother Christopher. (Pictured 1995)
Confessions II is set for release on July 3 through Warner Records
However, the sibling’s relationship began to fracture in the late 1990s – as Christopher began to grow increasingly resentful over having given up his artistic dreams to support his sister’s career.
In 2000, Christopher famously labelled Madonna an ‘evil queen’ in a leaked email, where he lamented ‘giving up [his] f***ing life’ for his sister’s ‘mediocre talent’.
‘I guess I always thought that one day you’d see my worth and behave accordingly… but you never did… a little f***ing respect was all I ever wanted from you and you couldn’t even manage that,’ he raged.
Eight years later, he reportedly earned ‘seven figures’ to team up with author Wendy Leigh to co-write the tell-all book Life with My Sister Madonna.
In the 352-page book, Christopher made a cruel jibe about his sister’s ‘fat’ midriff during The Virgin Tour back in 1985 and said Madonna would become a ‘basket case’ when being interviewed on TV.
