If life begins at 40, it should be slowing down at 60, most would opine. But what if you don’t want it to? What if you still want to be in the eye of the storm? For those for whom the mind is still willing — even if the hips are not — it’s all too tempting to sod the work/life balance and say ‘yes’ to everything. After all, what’s the worst that can happen?
As Madonna, 64, recently found out, the worst that can happen is that you almost die. On Saturday, the singer was found unconscious in her New York home, rushed to the ICU and intubated overnight, her condition so serious that her relatives were ‘preparing for the worst’, according to an unnamed family member. “Nobody knew which direction this was going to turn - that’s why it was kept a secret since Saturday,” they added.
Career-wise, the timing couldn’t have been worse. On Wednesday, her manager Guy Oseary announced that she was suffering from a ‘serious bacterial infection’ the recovery from which would necessitate the postponement of her world tour, due to begin in Vancouver on July 15. The Celebration tour - her 12th - is a six month, 84-show extravaganza spanning 40 cities, with six dates in London alone.
That was the plan, anyway. But now, its future is uncertain. Will Celebration be cancelled, or merely postponed? While Madonna is expected to make a full recovery, her illness has been a wake-up call. For a performer who has pushed herself to the limits for the entire duration of her five decade career, the realisation that she is at the mercy of the same health issues as the rest of us will be a particularly bitter pill to swallow. As fans await further updates on her health, we present a current status update on the world’s most successful female artist.
Her family
Madonna’s six children — Lourdes, 26; Rocco, 22; David, 17; Mercy, 17; and 10 year-old twins Stella and Estere — will of course be devastated by their mother’s condition. Lourdes, known as Lola, was in Paris when she found out the news, and jetted to be by her side throughout her hospitalisation. Rocco, meanwhile, was on a motorbike trip in Romania, but also flew straight to New York, and was recently seen near her Central Park home. David has also been spotted in New York. It is unknown whether Madonna’s three sisters — Paula, Melanie and Jennifer — and three brothers — Martin, Christopher and Mario — are in New York, or whether her 92 year-old father, Silvio, has made the trip from Michigan. Whoever is present, one topic they won’t be talking about is the tour: all discussion is banned, according to a family source. “No one is allowed to mention anything work-related around her because she will lose her s***,” they said. “She will put her career and her fame before her health until the day she is dead.”
While Lourdes and Rocco are frequent travellers, their younger siblings are broadly based in New York, where twins Stella and Estere recently graduated from elementary school. While the family is close, Madonna has admitted that being a mother of six isn’t always easy, telling Vanity Fair earlier this year that “I am still struggling to understand how to be a mother and do my job”, and adding that “growing up with a mother like me is a challenge. It has been the hardest battle. Whoever you are, having children and raising them is a work of art. It is a profession that requires a lot of time. And it is exhausting because there is never rest.” Few working mums would disagree.
Her health
“The calm before the storm,” was the last caption Madonna wrote on Instagram, accompanied by nine photos of her rehearsing for her tour. While it’s safe to say that landing in the ER wasn’t the kind of storm she’d been referring to, nor is it accurate to say that her life had been entirely calm beforehand. In February 2020 during her Madame X tour, she was forced to cancel several shows due to recurring hip and knee injuries. Three months later, she revealed she was undergoing stem cell treatment to treat them, and shared an X-ray image of her damaged knee. At the time, she described herself as ‘a broken doll held together with tape and glue’, and announced that she was taking some bed rest.
But if her physical health is in doubt, so, too, is her mental health — at least, according to her more critical fans. In late 2022, she sparked concern thanks to a series of social media posts, one of which saw her appear to lick water from a dog bowl, while another saw her mouth ‘have you ever been punched in your mother—king face?’ to the words of rapper Baby Keem’s song, Vent. And then there’s the issue of her appearance, the governance of which is of nobody’s business but Madonna — a fact that hasn’t, of course, stopped haters from hating, for which female celebrity past the age of 30 doesn’t get taken to task over their face, size and clothing choices? Already, there are rumours — completely unfounded — that her bacterial infection was the result of facial surgery, and while it goes without saying that Madonna will want to look the best for her tour, it should also go without saying that whatever she does to her face is her choice. There are other ways to catch a bacterial infection, and news that she’s been rehearsing for 12 hours a day, six days a week won’t have boded well for her immune system.
Her love life
In March, she went Instagram official with Josh Popper, a 29 year-old boxer. While there have been no recent sightings of them together, nor is there anything to suggest they’ve broken up, though with her gruelling tour rehearsals, it’s unlikely they’ve had much time to keep the love alive. On Tuesday, Popper wrote on Instagram: “Give yourself permission to live a big life. Step into who you were meant to be. Stop playing small. You are meant for greater things”. Not the most apt motivational quote to share when your girlfriend is laid up in hospital with her world tour hanging in the balance, but we’re sure she agreed with the sentiment. Previous to Josh, Madonna enjoyed a short romance with model Andrew Darnell, 23, preceded by a three year relationship with backing dancer Ahlamalik Williams.
Her finances
With an estimated net worth of $850m, Madonna certainly doesn’t need to go on tour. But nor does Mick Jagger, and that didn’t stop the 79 year-old fronting last year’s Rolling Stones tour, with nary a mention of his age. Critics might point out that Madonna hasn’t had a hit since 2020’s ‘I Don’t Search I Find’, but when you’ve a back catalogue as rich as hers, you can afford to have a fallow period — not least when you’re the only artist in the world to have topped the chart over five consecutive decades. According to Guinness World Records, she’s the best selling female artist ever, and relative to all artists, beaten only by Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
She’s earned more money than she can ever dream of spending. But she’s having a ball trying: her art collection is worth $100m
Fourteen solo albums, a string of nine figure tours (2008’s Sticky & Sweet tour alone made $408m), an acting career and a slew of brand deals have earned her more money than she can ever dream of spending. But she’s having a ball trying: her art collection is worth $100m, while she also has a string of properties across the world (at one point owning six in London alone), including her principal residence, a palatial $32m townhouse overlooking Central Park, a 50-acre equestrian estate in the Hamptons, a mansion in Lisbon (where she spent part of the pandemic) and a sprawling estate in Santa Monica, bought from The Weeknd in 2021 for $19.3m and sold in 2022 for $26m.
Her popularity
“Please don’t do the tour — your health is the priority,” was one of 8,000 comments under her most recent Instagram post of June 20. Another added: “I can’t imagine the world without you — you gave a ray of light to me when I was in the dark about my sexuality,” with many more pointing out that Madonna was an early and outspoken advocate of LGBTQ rights. Others were less kind. “Pay to watch Madonna break a hip onstage? Why, when it’s gonna be on social media for free,” said one. “Girl, please just accept that you’re ageing,” said another. Maybe, but that didn’t stop her shifting 600,000 tickets in 24 hours for the Celebration tour (the first two concerts at London’s 02 Arena sold out in 20 minutes, according to Live Nation), or adding 23 extra dates to cope with demand.
As a woman still daring to get her tits out in her sixties, Madonna will always have her critics. Criticism has been a constant throughout her career. As has her unrepentant attitude. It’s why her fans love her. Let’s hope the Queen of Pop is back on her throne soon.
