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January 7, 2009

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Christopher Ciccone (Photo courtesy Big Machine Media)

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DAN RENZI
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Out of Madonna’s shadow
Christopher Ciccone talks about life with, and without, Madonna

By DAN RENZI
AUG. 14, 2008
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"I DON'T THINK SHE'S HAPPY ABOUT IT."

This is the official statement of Christopher Ciccone, in reference to his sister, the pop singer known worldwide as Madonna. Ciccone has written a "tell-all" book, titled "Life With My Sister Madonna," and the book is currently on the New York Times bestseller list at #7. 

When it hit the newsstands, “Life” was promoted as a scandal-soaked, tell-all muckfest, luring readers with promises of secret details about one of the most famous people in the world.  But now that it has been released, readers are discovering a different book entirely.  This is not a tale about a pop-star's secret life; it's the story of Ciccone himself, what it is like living in the shadow of a pop star, and how you break away.  This is not the story Ciccone could have told; instead, it is a story he wanted to tell.

"It's not a bloodbath," he says.  "I think there are a number of people who are disappointed that it's not.  When the book came out, I was getting some very negative email, that I was betraying her and I was about to tear her apart.  But all the people who said they didn't want that to happen were the same people who wanted to read it.  They wanted it to be that."

Hordes of people who have purchased the book, but Ciccone isn’t sure if his sister is one of them.  They haven’t spoken in years, and with the publication of “Life,” there probably isn’t a reunion coming in the near future.

“We haven't spoken about it directly," he says. "She's written a number of emails to my father.  But I don't know whether she's read it or not, or what her particular reaction is to it.”

Many lurid details did make it into the book, of course.  Among them are claims that Madonna repeatedly agreed to business arrangements with him and then reneged, often leaving his bank accounts empty as a result.  She adapted the plights of her family members to her own benefit, going so far as outing Ciccone in an interview with The Advocate, just so she could win the favor of more gay fans.  She had sex to advance her career, she terrorized the people who worked for her, she staged visits to her mother’s grave just to be filmed for her “Truth or Dare” documentary film.  But more than anything, she seemed to use Ciccone as her doormat—and time and again, he picked himself up and went back for more.

“I can see how people would look at that as a strange thing,” says Ciccone, in reference to his acceptance of the abuse. "Look, the death by a thousand cuts—they add up.  But keep in mind, that was my life.  She was my only family and employer at the time. It might seem sadomasochistic on some level, but she was my family.”

Ciccone also takes direct aim at two of the people closest to his sister: her husband, perennially-unemployed movie director Guy Ritchie, and her close friend and confidant, Miami nightclub impresario Ingrid Casares. Ciccone gives the most vicious treatment of the book to Casares, portraying her as a spineless idiot who lives only for Madonna's approval.  Madonna met Casares in the late 1990’s, when the pop star lived in Coconut Grove, and the two became extremely close friends; but Casares's presence in the book rarely perpetuates the plot, other than to show how Madonna likes to be surrounded by people who can't think for themselves.  It’s an extremely unflattering portrayal, and Ciccone is well aware that Casares is very upset about it.

But rather than confronting him about the book, Ciccone says Casares swiped a mutual friend's iPhone, and sent him a vitriolic message through the friend's profile.  "I thought it was him, because she used his phone," he says. "And she said, 'I hope you're happy, whoring out your sister, and BETRAYING ONE OF YOUR VERY GOOD FRIENDS' in capital letters, meaning her."

Several days later, the friend saw the message that Casares sent, and called Ciccone to say it wasn't him.  As for why Casares pulled the Mean Girls-style prank, it's anyone's guess.

"I think she assumed I wouldn't speak to her, but of course I would speak to Ingrid," he says.  "It's just a childish behavior. It's perfect Ingrid style, you know—hide behind someone else and express her anger."


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