The Michigan Messenger tracked down Anthony Ciccone, the older brother of Madonna and found him living on the streets. Apparently he even got frostbite last year while sleeping under a bridge in Traverse City. He says that he has reached out to his family and that they turned their back on him. He says that people always ask him why he is homeless considering his sister is almost a billionaire. That is the only time he really talked about her. My feeling is that Madonna and her family probably have tried to help him over the years and that he probably kept asking for more and more. You would think Madonna could set up some kind of thing for him where at least she pays for an apartment for him to keep him from getting frostbite. That does not seem like a lot to do.
Being that we don't know the situation, it may be a lot to do. He has probably received tons of help in the past but has burned too many bridges. He is a grown man, time to stand on his own.
ReplyDeleteSome kind of trust
ReplyDeletefund that provides an apt and food delivered no actual cash would be appropriate.
How could she NOT??
easy to say, but having been in a similar situation with a family member- you KEEP TRYING.
ReplyDeleteYOU JUST DO. And I never had her fkn money!
Maybe the family is trying "tough love."
ReplyDeleteSad to be his age - he must be in his 50s, if he is Madge's older brother - and be in this situation.
If he is an addict, I don't blame any one of them a bit for cutting him off.
ReplyDeleteHe wrote a book trashing her personally and professionally...why should she help him after all that? How does that phrase go? "Don't bite the hand that feeds you"? Yes, that's it...
ReplyDeleteI think it was a different brother that wrote the book? Christopher maybe?
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to judge without knowing the whole story. Maybe he's a user; maybe he refuses help; maybe he's a toxic person; maybe Madonna's just a cold-hearted bitch? Probably all the above.
This post doesn't say, but isn't he a drug addict? You can't enable an addict even if you are a billionaire. I know that sounds incredibly harsh, but if her family knows that he's using then cutting him off is the right thing to do. If she supported him while he was using, he'd use until he died and then people would say that was her fault for enabling him. And don't get me wrong, I am NOT a fan of Madonna.
ReplyDeleteI'm in a family with not one but two people who are like this. One has serious mental illness and my mom still pays for most of her rent, car, etc. even though she's nearly 60. Another is just someone who I love dearly, but who just never learns from her mistakes and makes them over and over. For instance, we would come to her house to help change all the locks etc. against a crazy ex, then two days later the ex would have a key to the house. We ended up moving across the country for work, and we have a lot of relief (mixed with guilt) that we are no longer right there to be called upon to bail her out again and again and again.
ReplyDeleteDon't judge until you've been there.
A druggie would sell the food you provided and sub-let the apartment for a fix. I'd pay for some sort of hard core lock-down rehab but that is it, I don't want druggies around me or bothering me.
ReplyDeleteI don't know....it just sucks all the way around. Straighten up man!
ReplyDelete.robert - YUP.
ReplyDeleteAnd if in hardcore addiction, any inch given will be tried for a mile.
Oh, you pay for me to live rent free?
Well, let me call your management 12 times a day and complain that the lighting fixture is broke, and could I get money to replace it? Say, I've got a friend that will mow the lawn for just 50 a week...And I hate to the bearer of bad news, but I got robbed last week (And by robbed I mean furniture and sold for drug money) so all that will need to be replaced. Because I have no bed to sleep or TV to watch now. Not even a chair to sit in.
And on, and on, and on...
It was Madonna's younger brother Christopher who wrote the book. I read it, and there was nothing said that everyone didn't already know about her. And he admits the main reason for their estrangement was his drug addiction and money issues. He writes that Madonna is strictly anti-drug and basically won't enable anyone. So if this older brother is an addict as well, I can see her cutting off any money sent.
ReplyDeleteETA one person here suggested a hard core rehab facility. That she or her family could do. But it won't work if he doesn't want to.
ReplyDeleteboo hoo, this is what is wrong with the entitlement generation. Just because you are related doesn't make you entitled to their money.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with all the addict comments...
And yet Madonna consumes alcohol, smoked cigarettes, and used drugs like ecstasy and other stimulants throughout her life. Her "opposition" to these things is kind of like her love for children, i.e., part of the PR kit.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's up to the individual, but in my opinion, as much of a pain an addict can be when they're alive, it's nothing compared to the pain and regret you'll feel when they're dead. F*ck tough love.
ReplyDeleteThe report says he lost his job at the family winery a year and a half ago. Doesn't say why, but if none of you have had no income in the last few years, it is almost impossible now to rebound. As a white male in his 50s, he's got practically no chance of getting a job now. Sad.
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ReplyDeleteeveryone is assuming he is an addict when I don't think that there is any evidence of that, at least not yet.
ReplyDeleteeven so, I can't imagine not paying for shelter for a sibling, especially during michigan winters. no one should be surprised if he freezes to death. will she cry crocodile tears then?
I find madonna to be holier than thou. she has always been rather a slut and did alot of drugs in her day. she also picked up young hispanic guys in manhattan to f**k and rumor has it, gave some of them the herpe.
so, her moralizing falls rather flat with me.
i don't think there is enough information to this story for me to opine.
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ReplyDeleteWe know NOTHING about Anthony but for those who do understand drug addiction you can give to help but you end up just gving them rope to hang themselves.
ReplyDeleteDon't know what's going on with this sib, but I got an older brother I have nothing to do with. He is in and out of prison like a revolving door. Don't want my kids or mother around him. He has hit our mother a few times, so if Vadge's brother is anything like mine, I totally understand why this is happening. By the way, Vadge's father is worse than Vadge from what I've read. He is really hardcore about tough love.
ReplyDeleteYou can't fix these people. You just can't. Here's what Cleckley (google is your friend) says:
ReplyDeleteWomen might learn in time not
to sacrifice so readily their fortunes, their life plans, their grief, and their energy in
indefatigable and fruitless struggles to support and nurse and pamper maturity into husbands and lovers whose profound deficit makes such maturity (by such means)impossible.
Same goes for brothers, fathers, step fathers, etc.
There was a bit about this brother in "Truth Or Dare"...she waits for him at the hotel after the show and he doesn't show up until after she's gone to bed and when he does he is (well, looks, to me) high and brought a bunch of friends. I don'r know the whole background story here but he's obviously been having issues for quite some time. She may have tried to help and is now trying the tough love approach. There may be money and a home available to him, or an offer of rehab, or employment, and he has turned it down or flaked out. We don't know. I don't think Madonna is some kind of angel or anything, but I'm sure she has tried.
ReplyDeleteOh crap, I'm siding with Madonna. There is no percentage for her in the inevitable bad publicity from this and she would know better than any of us what is best for her brother, who is 50 years of age and should be able to take care of himself. Yeah, you do keep trying with family but this may be the best way to keep trying.
ReplyDeleteTough love is so hard but sometimes it's all you can do for someone. And I agree with Amartel - wouldn't it be easier for Madonna to just throw money at her brother and his issues, in order to avoid a headline "Madonna's Brother Homeless and Frostbitten"? She has to know what she's doing. Family BS is the worst.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds horrible, but we don't really know what she's previously done to help. :-/
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