Madonna explains how visit from late mom during coma led to reconciliation with brother

Madonna recently got candid about her spirituality and her ideas on forgiveness in a rare interview, which saw her speak about her family and her late mother.

Madonna has admitted that she doesn’t do interviews often, and when she does, she is usually promoting something like an upcoming tour or a new album. But recently, the pop star decided to do something different.

Sitting down for an interview on the Jay Shetty Podcast, Madonna spoke about how she initially struggled to forgive her brother, Christopher Ciccone.

She also highlighted her difficulty in not holding a grudge and the growth she had to make to reconcile their relationship.

She said: "I’m a fighter, if somebody messes with me, they are going to get it. There are things that have happened to me in my life where I just think I will never forgive this person.

Madonna opened up about her journey to repair her relationship with her brother before his death (Jay Shetty Podcast)

“Now I just don’t want to have those feelings anymore because it is a prison and it is poison to not be able to forgive and to live in a state of holding a grudge or hating someone or wanting them to suffer.”

Without getting into the details of what happened, Madonna admitted that she had a big falling out with Christopher, who died at the age of 63 in 2024.

She said before his death, she was able to forgive him after having a ‘spiritual’ encounter with her deceased mother while she was in a coma.

Speaking of going into a coma in 2023 after contracting a bacterial infection, she said her mother spoke to her.

"When I woke up in the hospital that word forgiveness came to my mind," the 'Material Girl' singer said.

"I have to forgive people because I was there, I was almost on the other side, and I had a conscious moment, and my mother appeared to me and she said 'do you want to come with me?'

"And I said 'no'. My assistant was in the room with me, but I was still unconscious, but she heard me say no.

"Then when I did eventually wake up, I realized that the no was about me needing to forgive and make good with people I still held grudges against."

Madonna went on to say that she wrote a song about her late brother and even added that she has written another song about the importance of forgiving yourself if you can’t forgive someone else.