A month on from his passing, more details of Madonna’s oldest brother Anthony Ciccone’s death have been revealed.
According to a death certificate obtained by TMZ, Ciccone died of respiratory failure and throat cancer.
Ciccone’s reportedly suffered from several health issues that contributed to his death, including oropharyngeal cancer, with tobacco use being listed as a contributing factor.
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The singer’s brother passed away on February 24, the sad news confirmed by her brother-in-law, Joe Henry – who is married to the singer’s sister Melanie Ciccone – in a heartbreaking Instagram post. Ciccone was 66 when he died.
“My brother-in-law, Anthony Gerard Ciccone, exited this earthly plane last evening,” Henry wrote alongside a black and white photo of Anthony.
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Publicly addressing his death on Instagram, Madonna – who is one of seven children – shared fond words of her brother.
“Thank you for blowing my mind as a young girl and introducing me to Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Buddhism, Taoism, Charles Bukowski, Richard Brautigan, Jack Kerouac, Expansive Thinking Outside the Box,” she said.
“You planted many important seeds.”
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According to People magazine, the 64-year-old singer and her family had a fractured relationship with Anthony due to his alleged struggles with alcohol.
“They were all there for him and despite being estranged, Madonna supported him in every way she could when he was willing to take the support,” a source told the outlet.
“Family members including Madonna visited him while in his rehab facility as he declined these past few months.”
In Ciccone’s obituary, it was confirmed that he died in Suttons Bay, Michigan.
“Anthony seemed in many ways a character from a time other than his own: an insatiable reader possessing of a restless intellect,” read the obituary.
“He was a man who, even when troubled and distant from his own, valued family; and though a loner – isolated throughout much of his adult life by the addiction that contributed to his early demise – he was nonetheless enlivened by community and a sense of belonging.”
Ciccone is survived by his son, Angelo Lawson-Smith.
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