Anthony Ciccone, the eldest sibling of Madonna, died Friday at 66.
A cause of death was not disclosed but Ciccone was known to have had a long battle with alcoholism and was a heavy smoker.
The news was shared on Instagram by his brother-in-law, singer-songwriter Joe Henry. “I’ve known him since I was 15, in the spring of our lives in Michigan so many years now gone,” he wrote. “Anthony was a complex character … we tangled in moments, as true brothers can. But I loved him, and understood him better than I was sometimes willing to let on. But trouble fades; and family remains – with hands reached across the table.”
In 2011, The Daily Mail reported that Ciccone was sleeping under a bridge in Traverse City, Michigan and living off $10 a day he earned from collecting cans. He said although Madonna once paid for him to go into rehab, he was estranged from his family.
“I’m a zero in their eyes; a non-person, an embarrassment,” he said. “If I froze to death, my family probably wouldn’t know or care about it for six months.”
In addition to Madonna, 64, Ciccone leaves behind siblings Martin, 65, Paula, 63, Christopher, 62, and Melanie, 61, as well as a 29-year-old son, Angelo, from his relationship with costume designer Mary Jane Lawson.
