Madonna’s stepmother Joan Ciccone has died at 81 after a short battle with a “very aggressive cancer.”
Joan, who was married to Madonna’s father Silvio Ciccone for 58 years, “passed away peacefully” on Tuesday, September 24, according to an online obituary.
“She will be terribly missed by her family and friends whose lives she enriched with her enthusiasm, joy and love,” the obituary reads.
As well as her husband Silvio, 93, and stepdaughter Madonna, 66, Joan is survived by her other children, Martin, Paula, Christopher, Melanie, Jennifer and Mario Ciccone and their respective children.
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Her love for her family, particularly her grandchildren, was noted in the obituary.
“She took special joy in her grandkids later in life and with the grim cancer prognosis lamented that she was sad she would not see them marry and have kids of their own,” the obituary reads.
Madonna’s mother, also named Madonna, died at age 30 from breast cancer in 1963. Joan married Silvio three years later when Madonna was 8 years old.
For Mother’s Day in May 2024, Madonna mourned her mother, sharing what it was like losing her at just 5 years old via an Instagram tribute.
“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. I stepped into the station wagon and shut the door not knowing it was the last time I’d see her,” Madonna reflected in the post, (Madonna’s shows featured a picture of her mother flashing behind her on screen during performances of her song, “Mother and Father.”)
Madonna added: “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.”
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The singer has also been open in the past about her often fraught relationship with Joan during her childhood, which developed after her mother’s death.
“My mother died when I was little and that was difficult for me for a while,” she said during an appearance on Larry King in 2002. “I mean truthfully, I didn’t accept my stepmother when I was growing up. In retrospect, I think that was really hard on her. She was [trying] … I’m very close to my father and I didn’t want to accept change in my life.”
