Madonnas younger brotherChristopher Ciccone, an artist, dancer and interior designer, has died.
My brother Christopher is gone.
He was the closest human to me for so long, she captioned thepostin part.
Madonna and Christopher Ciccone during The 70th Annual Academy Awards - Red Carpet at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, United States.KMazur/WireImage
Its hard to explain our bond.
We took each others hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood.
Ciccone is survived by his husband, actor Ray Thacker, whom he married in 2016.
Read Madonnas full statement below:
My brother Christopher is gone.
He was the closest human to me for so long.
Its hard to explain our bond.
We took each others hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood.
In fact dance was a kind of superglue that held us together.
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.
When I finally got the courage to go to New York to become a Dancer.
And again we took each others hands, and we danced through the madness of New York City!
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 soared the highest heights together and floundered in the lowest lows.
Somehow, we always found each other again and We held hands and we kept dancing.
The last few years have not been easy.
I did my best to keep him alive as long as possible.
He was in so much pain towards the end.
Once again, we held hands.
We closed our eyes and we danced.
Im glad hes not suffering anymore.
There will never be anyone like him.
I know hes dancing somewhere.
