The Queen of Pop shares her heartbreaking story of losing her mom at age five in a new film.
In Sky’s Becoming Madonna, the 66-year-old superstar talks about how deeply she was affected by her mother’s death in 1963, who passed from breast cancer at just 30 years old. Her mom shared her name – Madonna Louise Ciccone.
“What happened, you know, when I was [5] years old, it was just the greatest event of my life,” Madonna revealed. “It was like a part of my heart was ripped out.”
“I was forced to grow up fast and understand my mother’s death, to understand the psychological — all things that were going on. It was too much for a child I think,” she shared, adding that she felt an “emptiness” after.
When asked about her memories of her mother, Madonna said simply, “She was beautiful and sweet and a hard worker.”
In the documentary, Madonna’s late brother Christopher Ciccone spoke about the family’s loss too. “I think when my mother died things changed emotionally with everybody,” Christopher said. “I know my father put a great deal more pressure on (Madonna) to be our guide. She was our mother’s namesake, and her name was Madonna. I mean, it either crushes you or edifies you or elevates you to something else.”
During last year’s Mother’s Day, Madonna looked back on her Celebration Tour’s tribute to her mom.
“I stood on stage for 81 shows staring up at the beautiful face of my mother and wondering what she must’ve been thinking as she waved goodbye to me from her hospital window,” Madonna shared on Instagram. “I stepped into the station wagon and shut the door not knowing it was the last time I’d see her.”
“Nobody told me my mother was dying — I just watched her disintegrate mysteriously, and then she disappeared, and there was no explanation except that she had gone to sleep, which explains my tumultuous relationship with sleep,” she wrote. “When I stepped out on the stage and looked up at my mother’s face every night, I said, ‘Hello,’ I said, ‘Goodbye.’ I said, ‘Thank you. I hope you’re proud of me.’ I said, ‘Please protect me and keep me sane.'”
Last October, Madonna visited Christopher’s grave in Michigan after he died from cancer, sharing the moment on Instagram Stories with her daughter, Lourdes.
