Madonna's heartbreak as beloved brother Christopher Ciccone dies at 63 just days after family loss

Music icon Madonna has lost her younger brother, Christopher Ciccone, who worked as a designer, artist and director throughout his career organizing concert tours, music videos, and film, to commercial, residential interior and furniture design

Madonna's younger brother Christopher Ciccone has sadly died at the age of 63.

The pair worked closely throughout the Queen of Pop's career, but had a falling out in 2008 with Christopher's bombshell book 'Life with My Sister Madonna.' His death comes shortly after their stepmother, Joan Clare Ciccone, died on September 24 after a brief but aggressive battle with cancer.

Christopher worked within the industry as a designer, artist and director as he organised concert tours, music videos as well as films. A friend close to the Christopher said: "He was an extremely talented man with a wicked sense of humor."

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The star's brother was perhaps Madonna's closest sibling as he kick started his career off as her assistant, stylist and artistic director. As the globally renowned singer started to pave her way through the music industry, Christopher was closely by her side.

But the pair have had their fair share of trouble, especially after he wrote a tell-all book discussing his troubled relationship with her then husband Guy Ritchie. In the book, Christopher claims the film director "drove at him" and admitted they "never got along."

He also claimed that the singer's relationship with Guy was a "death knell for my relationship with her." He added the Material Girl star was a "middle class girl who propagates the story that she landed in Time Square with just a pair of ballet shoes and $35 to her name." But his claims didn't end there as he went on to say that her narrative is "pure mythology and the further she progresses, the more mythological her life story becomes."

Christopher reportedly struggled with substance abuse which Madonna tried desperately to help him with by funding his stints in rehab facilities. But it looks as though their close bond had hit breaking point after she axed him as her tour director in 2003. And five years later, his tell-all book Life With My Sister Madonna, was published and released.

However by 2012, the tension between the siblings appeared to have thawed if his interview at the time was anything to go by. He told The Evening Standard: "(We are) on a perfectly personable level right now. As far as I’m concerned, we’re good. We are in contact with each other, although I haven’t seen her for a long time. We’re back to being a brother and sister. I don’t work for her, and it’s better this way."

He continued: "I couldn’t be more proud of her. She is a force to be reckoned with. Does she have Barbra Streisand’s voice? No. Can she dance like Martha Graham? Probably not. But the combination of her abilities has made her great, and left a huge legacy for her, and through her, for me. So yeah, God bless her."

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