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RIP Anthony Ciccone


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12 hours ago, Ayham said:

It was all over the news, he was homeless & asking for a help… apparently she didn’t help him or tried to reach out to him, she always had a rough relationship with her siblings in general except her sister.

You don't know that + in case you forgot he still had a father that was financially good thanks to his daughter, yet he couldn't help his own son too, so blaming the sister about it just cause it happens to be famous is petty.

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Addiction is the worst. It's 2023 and we're still helpless about it. What are we waiting for ?

So, the interview was erased from Tablet, a jewish publication. They did an in depth interview with Anthony, which was weird. There's a tiny mention of it but from memory i remember a part about his family celebrating jewish passover with  neighbours when they were living in Pontiac. Just like Madonna he hated living in Rochester and had great memories of the more mixed neighbourhood of Pontiac. It was a very fascinating read about how the Ciccones and not only Madonna grew up, not very midwestern americans but very open to other cultures way before Madonna moved to New York.

So this is exactly what he said about Joan :

"We had a lot of nannies, and they all tried somehow to take advantage of him (Madonna's father). The last one, he ended up marrying, and he is still married to her to this day. The only problem was my siblings and I hated her guts. She was only 12 years older than me; it was like your older sister becomes your mother. This was the main reason Madonna left home. She got a full scholarship from the University of Michigan, and she left for New York to be a starving artist. She did that in part to fulfill her dream, but in part because she couldn't live at home anymore. My dad almost got a heart attack when he heard she was dropping out of college, but it turned out to be the right move."

Source

 

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10 hours ago, Roland Barthes said:

Addiction is the worst. It's 2023 and we're still helpless about it. What are we waiting for ?

I feel like there might be light at the end of the tunnel. There's been some ground breaking research into using psychedelics (in conjunction with counselling) to cure addictions (as well as PTSD and depression) with some tremendous results. It's early days but it's very promising so here's hoping. Michael Pollan's book "How To Change Your Mind - What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence" talks about it in detail. 

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14 minutes ago, kesiak said:

I feel like there might be light at the end of the tunnel. There's been some ground breaking research into using psychedelics (in conjunction with counselling) to cure addictions (as well PTSD and depression) with some tremendous results. It's early days but it's very promising so here's hoping. Michael Pollan's book "How To Change Your Mind - What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence" talks about it in detail. 

Indeed! I also think Australia is the first country to legalize psychiatrist from July this year to prescribe MDMA and Psilocybin to patients with drug resistant depression etc. So lots of great new novel ways let's hope we address this hidden pandemic. 

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2 hours ago, musicinferno said:

Yeah it's very tough to deal with. My sisters and I have spend thousands on my mom and we all individually gave her a place to stay and she screwed us over for so many years that eventually we had to let her take responsibility for her own actions. Sadly she just passed away of an accidental drug overdose and that guilt Wil always be present but we know deep down inside there was nothing we could do. :cry:

😢😢😢I’m so so sorry for your loss! You are right. You did all you could. You have my deepest sympathies and prayers. Hang in there. Xxxxx huggsss

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13 hours ago, Kieran said:

Let us also not forget that Anthony, too, lost his mother at a young age and undoubtably struggled with this, possibly in correlation with his unfortunate addictions. RIP.:rose:

“He ran and he ran, he’s still running away”

His mother dying and his sister leaving and escaping the family circumstance probably reinforced his sense of abandonment.

Addiction is often a bi product of a need to escape the world and run from your issues, hide in the drug. 

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On 2/26/2023 at 4:22 AM, Ayham said:

It was all over the news, he was homeless & asking for a help… apparently she didn’t help him or tried to reach out to him

You have no evidence that she didn't help him. STOP.

Madonna hired him on a film she worked on in the 90's as a "location scout" when he had no experience doing that.

She paid for his rehab at least twice.

You can only do so much and no amount of money or influence can help when someone isn't willing to change and has an addiction. 

He lost his mother early on which is hard enough. But then his sister was the most recognizable, successful star/woman in the world. We have no idea what that struggle was like for him or what that comparison can do to someone's mind.

And none of us know the totality of what she did or didn't do to help him.

Shame on you. Someone died. Unsubstantiated statements like this should be off limits on this forum.

 

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Rest in peace 😥💖 This is the first time Madonna lose a very close family member since the death of her mother, i hope she is strong cause this will take her back to that sad event from her life, those demons from the past she has fought all her life. Going to the cemetary with her father and her sisters and brother will make echoes from the past. Thankfully she has her children now so she can feel more secure and share real love with them.

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To be honest, I am one of those who stayed with this version sold by the press of the poor addicted brother abandoned by the millionaire sister and who, having no money, had to go and live under a bridge. I remember that this news was headlined in various press outlets around the world and I think that Madonna should have come out to clarify things at the time because as we all know, silence is consent,  and many people were left with that image of the evil sister. Even now, with the death of her brother, the media continue to report the sad news but remember, in a morbid way, that he lived for many years under a bridge and without money when the truth of the story is totally different from the one told by the press but unfortunately only the fans know about it (I just found out thanks to this forum) and people close to the family.

I am not one to enter the social networks of artists, not even those of Madonna, but does anyone know if she published something regarding the death of her dear brother? A photo or a goodbye message? I would like to see it. Thank you.

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Chosing a story over a post is a clear indication she does not want to share her grief publicly, posting rehearsals footage with the caption she made is also clear she chose to move forward and is not after sympathy and condolences in her commentaries. In typical Madonna fashion she's chosing work to process the pain. 

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At the end of the day, it's none of our business how she chooses to grieve or express her grievance.  Maybe she's powering through it with work, but then again, those videos could have been taken days or a week ago.  I'm sure this is her re-assuring her fans that the tour is going on as scheduled.   

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MADONNA PAID FOR BROTHER'S CARE IN FINAL YEARS Despite Complicated Relationship

2/28/2023 1:00 AM PT

Madonna was taking care of her late brother, Anthony Ciccone, before his death -- and despite their complicated history, they were far from estranged ... TMZ has learned.

Family sources tell us Madonna was actually footing the bill for Anthony's stay at a Michigan rehab center before he died this weekend. We're told he'd been there for a while, and that 2 days before he passed ... Anthony himself removed the feeding/breathing tubes doctors had him using.

Our sources say he was in failing health toward the end -- having lost a lot of weight -- and he knew the consequences of removing the equipment, which ultimately resulted in his death. We're told some family members -- including his sister, Paula, and his father -- had been visiting in his final days, with Paula being at his bedside throughout most of it.

Anthony's rehab care wasn't just a last-ditch Hail Mary ... our sources tell us Madonna and other relatives have been actively trying to help Anthony for years, but, by and large, he rejected assistance, as living on the streets and drinking had become a way of life.

But, in the last stretch ... we're told the 66-year-old couldn't fend for himself, and the fam stepped in.

We're told he suffered from alcoholism, which led to homelessness -- and, as a result, his relationship with his famous younger sister had always been challenging. With that said, our sources tell us Madonna never considered herself on the outs with him, per se.

As we reported ... Anthony's passing was announced this weekend by the husband of one of Madonna's sisters, Melanie -- who remembered him in a sweet eulogy on social media.

Despite Anthony himself having gone on record to slam his family -- including Madonna -- our sources say they did, in fact, have his best interests at heart.

https://amp.tmz.com/2023/02/28/madonna-paid-brother-anthony-ciccone-care-before-death/?fbclid=IwAR1GSd7SXiWLWOZHBbZMoUC6EbYlUWLAkx6NDOI6SqyhkoxfBVAPX56Kt9o

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23 minutes ago, Brendanlovesu1 said:

MADONNA PAID FOR BROTHER'S CARE IN FINAL YEARS Despite Complicated Relationship

2/28/2023 1:00 AM PT

Madonna was taking care of her late brother, Anthony Ciccone, before his death -- and despite their complicated history, they were far from estranged ... TMZ has learned.

Family sources tell us Madonna was actually footing the bill for Anthony's stay at a Michigan rehab center before he died this weekend. We're told he'd been there for a while, and that 2 days before he passed ... Anthony himself removed the feeding/breathing tubes doctors had him using.

Our sources say he was in failing health toward the end -- having lost a lot of weight -- and he knew the consequences of removing the equipment, which ultimately resulted in his death. We're told some family members -- including his sister, Paula, and his father -- had been visiting in his final days, with Paula being at his bedside throughout most of it.

Anthony's rehab care wasn't just a last-ditch Hail Mary ... our sources tell us Madonna and other relatives have been actively trying to help Anthony for years, but, by and large, he rejected assistance, as living on the streets and drinking had become a way of life.

But, in the last stretch ... we're told the 66-year-old couldn't fend for himself, and the fam stepped in.

We're told he suffered from alcoholism, which led to homelessness -- and, as a result, his relationship with his famous younger sister had always been challenging. With that said, our sources tell us Madonna never considered herself on the outs with him, per se.

As we reported ... Anthony's passing was announced this weekend by the husband of one of Madonna's sisters, Melanie -- who remembered him in a sweet eulogy on social media.

Despite Anthony himself having gone on record to slam his family -- including Madonna -- our sources say they did, in fact, have his best interests at heart.

https://amp.tmz.com/2023/02/28/madonna-paid-brother-anthony-ciccone-care-before-death/?fbclid=IwAR1GSd7SXiWLWOZHBbZMoUC6EbYlUWLAkx6NDOI6SqyhkoxfBVAPX56Kt9o

No jabs at M. Most coverages have not taken any cheap shots at her. That’s great. There’s hope yet.

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The Tablet story from 2014 is still available in cache :

 

Madonna’s Homeless Brother Dishes on the Pop Queen’s Childhood Passover Seders

Exclusive footage of Anthony Ciccone singing his sister’s hit ‘Like a Prayer’: ‘It means something to me,’ he says

BY

ADI GOLD AND TAL MILLER

APRIL 09, 2014

Anthony Ciccone, 2013, and Madonna, 2011.PHOTOILLUSTRATION TABLET MAGAZINE; ORIGINAL PHOTOS ADI GOLD, GARETH CATTERMOLE/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE BFI, AND SHUTTERSTOCK

Anthony Ciccone didn’t take his shoes off once last summer. It was the first lesson he learned in the school of the streets: When you’re homeless, the closest thing to a weapon you have is your shoes. “If you try me, you’ll find out that I have strong and accurate kicks,” he said.

Ciccone, 57, who has lived on the street or in shelters for the past four years, doesn’t attract much attention in Traverse City, one of the wealthiest cities in Michigan and a base to hundreds of homeless people who wander the riverside. Ciccone has a deep radio voice and is an occasional gimmick host on a local rock station, WKLT. His sister is Madonna, an affiliation that follows him 24/7, tighter than his shoes, heavier than the plastic bag in which he carries his belongings.

While the biggest pop star in the world has a net worth of several hundred million dollars, her older brother is barely able to beg a few quarters to enable him to get some tobacco in his rolling papers. “The homeless here chase me because I’m too intelligent,” he explained. “The police chase me because they have no real crimes to handle. The media chase me because you want to hear the shit about my sister. This is why I need good shoes; there is always something to run away from.”

In March 2013, a local female police officer attempted to arrest Ciccone on an outstanding warrant for trespassing. Ciccone resisted. His mugshot made the rounds of the tabloids. He was sent to Grand Traverse County Correctional Facility for 30 days, after which he disappeared. “I have no idea what happened to him since he got out,” said Ciccone’s Traverse City lawyer who we called from New York to ask for help in finding Ciccone. “I don’t even know if he’s in Traverse City or not. I suggest that you save your time. It’ll be like searching for a needle in a haystack.”

It’s hard to overstate what Madonna symbolizes for the people of Israel. She is still arguably the most popular American singer in the land, an image that is bolstered by her fascination with Kabbalah, and her public support of the Jewish state. Like many Israelis, we had listened to Madonna’s music all our lives and felt a predictable mix of feelings about her brother’s story. How could such wealth permit such povertry? How was it possible that a brother and sister could have grown up in the same house and ended up so far apart? When Anthony popped up in the news again—and once the lawyer told us the man couldn’t be found—we decided that we didn’t have a choice. We hit the road to Michigan.

The homeless we ran into in Traverse City confirmed Ciccone’s lawyer’s concerns. “Anthony moves from place to place by foot and by bike,” they said. “He doesn’t sleep in the same place more than one night because once he settles in the police kick him out.” But a man who called himself Polish Dave, and identified himself as a senior member of Traverse City’s homeless community, didn’t hesitate: “Get me some vodka, and I’ll find him for you.” His credibility seemed shaky, but we had nothing to lose.

Polish Dave took us to one of the local churches. He went in and then came back out with both good news and bad news. The good news was that Madonna’s brother was in the church. The bad news was that he was unwilling to speak with us. We offered Dave a pack of cigarettes, and he went back in to convince Ciccone. A few minutes later, three people snuck out of the church’s back entrance: Polish Dave, Ciccone, and another homeless man named Michael—Ciccone is as experienced in losing the media as his sister is. Like papparrazzi, we gave chase. When we finally reached him, he stopped and started screaming that we should give him $10,000 or leave him alone. I said, “We came here from Israel just to talk with you.” Something in his expression changed. Three and a half hours later—after talking with him at the church, in a park, and under a nearby bridge—while sipping a beer we had bought for him, he explained why Israel mattered to him. And then he announced: “Until my mother passed away, we celebrated Passover every year.”

Passover? “Right. I know it’s strange, but my mom insisted on it,” he said. “She felt comfortable with Judaism, so we learned about the Ten Commandments and all the Jewish customs. Our Passover wasn’t kosher but it impressed me very much. I have no doubt that Madonna was affected by it and that it related to her Kabbalah studies. Both of us have a lot of respect for your country; you fight against endless enemies that want to crush you, and you don’t give up because you’ve got balls and a heart. I hope that one day I can visit the vineyards in Israel. The women, too.”

***

Twelve miles away from the soup kitchen where Ciccone often finds a hot meal is Tony Ciccone’s thriving family vineyard. Tony is Anthony and Madonna’s father. The vineyard was the last stop for Anthony, in his former life. It still symbolized what he said was his biggest wound—his tense relationship with his father—a wound that goes back to 1963, when his biological mother, Madonna Louise, died of breast cancer. That death was a turning point in the Ciccone children’s lives; Madonna refers to her father in many of her songs, particularly on the album Like a Prayer. The difference between Madonna and her older brother is that, while she used this open wound to create what Rolling Stone magazine called “the greatest album a pop artist can create,” Ciccone may be digging deeper and deeper into that wound on the Traverse City streets.

“The problems with my dad started after our mom passed away,” Ciccone said. “We had a lot of nannies, and they all tried somehow to take advantage of him. The last one, he ended up marrying, and he is still married to her to this day. The only problem was my siblings and I hated her guts. She was only 12 years older than me; it was like your older sister becomes your mother. This was the main reason Madonna left home. She got a full scholarship from the University of Michigan, and she left for New York to be a starving artist. She did that in part to fulfill her dream, but in part because she couldn’t live at home anymore. My dad almost got a heart attack when he heard she was dropping out of college, but it turned out to be the right move.”

Until the 1990s, Ciccone’s life was pretty normal. In 1993, while he was living in L.A., his only son was born. “I really liked being a family man,” he said. “I waited for it my entire life. My wife and I were together for seven years. She was the love of my life. After the birth of our son she got depressed. I worked in Hollywood, a tough physical job, long hours. I came back after an entire day and found her still in bed after she did nothing all day long. Then we started to fight; one day she just took our kid and took off. She got a restraining order against me. I got depressed, lost my job, started drinking, and my family, my brothers, and my father stopped talking to me because they accused me of all of that. I had no support, even though I was the one who tried to make it work again. Today she is married to some new guy, and I haven’t seen my kid since 1999. I went from being a full-time family man with a car, a house, and a wife to being homeless on the streets of L.A. I lost a part of myself there, with all the things I witnessed. I saw people get murdered, women get raped, horrible things. I guess you can call it education, but I don’t wish anybody to get that kind of education.”

After a long period of estrangement, Ciccone and his father’s relationship improved, he said, and Tony decided to let Anthony join the family vineyard. “For a long time, I worked there. I learned how to make wine, how to treat the vines, the whole deal. There was a time when things went pretty well; my father took me on a tour and told me, ‘Son, someday all this will be yours.’ So I asked him, ‘You mean all of that is going to be Mario’s, right?’ Mario is my stepbrother, who for some reason my dad preferred, but he told me, ‘No, it will be yours.’ Well, who’s running the vineyard today? Mario. And where am I? On the streets.”

His father’s choice wasn’t just professional, Ciccone said. Anthony was deep into his alcoholism, and one day, Tony found him passed out with an empty bottle of wine in his hand. “I remember my father’s voice. He looked at me and said, ‘Well, I think that Anthony is done for today.’ Since that day, he has not allowed me to work in the vineyard again. He wanted me to go to rehab, and I said no. He’s hard on me. I’m hard on him. We don’t get along; we can’t agree on anything. After I left the vineyard, I couldn’t find another job. I didn’t have any money to pay my rent, and I couldn’t stay at my parents’ place, so I moved to the street.”

Tony Ciccone declined to be interviewed for this article. (Madonna’s publicist, Liz Rosenberg, did not reply to repeated requests for comment, while a rep from her agency said, “Liz does not comment on anything regarding Madonna’s brother.”) But someone who is identified as a close family friend and neighbor, Kathy Meteyer, working in the wine-tasting room, told the Daily Mail that Tony is heartbroken about his son’s situation: “He did work here, they found things for him to do in the cellar, there’s all kind of work on a daily basis, in the summer there’s all kinds of pruning and picking to do. But he would sneak into the cellars and he would lay on the floor, open up one of the big tanks and drink the wine, with a glass. He just can’t come back until he stops drinking, because they think it will kill him; it already kind of has.”

***

The oldest of eight siblings (one died in infancy)*, Anthony is two years older than Madonna. He keeps a close relationship with his sister Paula (“she’s my buddy,” he said), but he and Madonna are not close. “I have a lot of respect for my sister’s success. She started from nothing and made her way to the top. I never asked her for anything, and I never will,” he said, when we asked him about why he never sought help from his wealthy sibling. “It’s her money; she earned it. Why should she give it to a stranger?”

In the 1980s, he said, he did have a relationship with his younger, cooler sister. “I remember that I went to visit her when she lived in a loft in SoHo before it became fashionable,” he recalled. “I show up at her doorstep and I’m looking like Joe Dork. And I was supposed to eat in a restaurant with her. She looked at my clothes, she looked at me, she goes: ‘Maybe we’ll go on the roof and order Chinese.’ And we did. And it was great.” He last saw Madonna, he said, two years ago, at the Super Bowl in Indianapolis where she performed. (He was sent there by WKLT on a promotional stunt.) He didn’t have enough money for a ticket, he said, so he sat in the parking lot with a friend and drank beer. When he looked up, he could see his sister on the Jumbotron.

While Ciccone’s not particularly a fan of his sister’s music, or of pop music in general, he does have a favorite Madonna song. “There is one song that got condemned in the ’80s by the Vatican. I like that song. ‘Like a Prayer.’ You know that song?” he asked. Ciccone started to sing spontaneously, in a voice that sounded like a combination of Madonna and Johnny Cash. “ ‘When you call my name it’s like a little prayer. I’m down on my knees, I wanna take you there.’ I like that song,” he continued. “Because it means something to me.”

His dream was to go back to work at his father’s vineyard, but he said his stepbrother clearly didn’t want him around. Otherwise, he said, “I hesitate to dream because when you dream you get your hopes up. And then you get your heart broke. And so when this happens so many times you hesitate to dream.” He would like to get married again and have a family, but he said he knew that the odds were against him, given his situation. “I pray for one more chance, but the truth is that there is a good chance I’ll never live to witness that day,” he told us. “No one will be surprised if I’ll die before my 60th birthday. Neither will I.”

*She previously talked about the child her father and Joan lost in infancy, another dark moment in her childhood (Q magazine in 2003)

mm.jpg

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On 2/26/2023 at 3:17 PM, Roland Barthes said:

The most in depth and balanced article about Anthony...and it's shockingly from the Daily Mail

i guess the writer knows addiction because it's absolutely not in Daily Mail's usual style. This is the article from which i took most of the informations i shared in the previous post.

Edit : i can't find the interview he did where he talked about Joan being only a decade older than him so he couldnever see her as a mother figure. There was a long interview with an israeli publication but i can't find it. There was another one, a video one, but it seems to have been removed. The press has been very abusive with this, paying him or buying him drinks to spill his guts against Madonna. This people have no shame. That's why i'm impressed by this old Daily Mail article about the situation.

"Though he chooses to make light of his alcoholism, he becomes intensely serious when he talks about his mother, recalling how he and Madonna were the only siblings who viewed their mother in her open funeral casket.

‘It made a lasting impression on us both,’ he says. ‘It was a macabre thing for two little kids to see"

This is probably the moment their fate was decided and it sent them on two different paths.

 

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And it had never occurred to me that Joan is only 14 years older than Madonna. More like an older sister as Anthony says. and Anthony says Madonna had to leave/ or was kind of forced to leave because they found Joan as a replacement for their mom unacceptable. The more I know the more I empathize with Madonna. 

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