EXCLUSIVE: ‘We all believed we may lose her’: Madonna’s family’s fears

Madonna‘s condition was so serious that her relatives were ‘preparing for the worst,’ a family member has told DailyMail.com.

The 64-year-old was found unconscious in New York on Saturday, and rushed to the ICU where she was reportedly intubated overnight.

On Wednesday, her manager Guy Oseary announced that she was suffering from a ‘serious bacterial infection’, and needed time to recover so was postponing her tour, due to begin in Vancouver on July 15.

The singer’s relative told DailyMail.com they spent several traumatic days unsure if she was going to pull through. 

The family member said the shocking collapse was a wake-up call for Michigan-born Madonna, who believes she is ‘invincible’ and has been pushing herself extremely hard to prepare for the tour.

‘For the past couple of days, no one really knew which direction this was going to turn, and her family was preparing for the worst,’ the relative said. 

‘That is why it was kept a secret since Saturday. 

‘Everyone believed that we may lose her and that has been the reality of the situation.’

Madonna is mother to six children: Lourdes, 26; Rocco, 22; David, 17; Mercy, 17; and 10-year-old twins Stella and Estere.

Lourdes was by her side throughout her hospitalization, The New York Post reported.

She posts frequent tributes to her 92-year-old father, Silvio Ciccone, and is close to several of her siblings.

Madonna has three sisters – Paula, Melanie and Jennifer – and four brothers: Anthony, Martin, Christopher and Mario.

Anthony died in February from throat cancer and respiratory failure, aged 66. 

The Ciccone siblings all keep a low profile, leaving the limelight to their megastar relation. 

The family source told DailyMail.com that her sudden hospitalisation united them.  

‘All of Madonna’s family members have come together over this,’ the relative said. 

And it served as a reminder to the singer that she needed to take care of herself. 

‘This really woke her the f*** up. 

‘She has not been living as healthy a life as she should be for her age, and she has been wearing herself thin over the past couple of months. 

‘She thinks that she is still young when, in fact, she is not. She also believes that she is invincible.’

Sources close to the singer said she has been working around the clock to ensure that her tour is perfect, with one revealing that she has been rehearsing six days a week.

Another told DailyMail.com in April that she was ‘driving everyone up the wall with her perfectionism’. 

At the time the source said that Madonna was ‘in incredible shape’. 

On Wednesday the family source said that discussion of her tour is banned from her bedside, because the famously hard-working singer needed to rest. 

‘Everything, including this tour, is taking a backseat right now and no one is allowed to even mention anything work related around her because she will lose her s***,’ the relative added. 

‘She will put her career and her fame before her health until the day she is dead.’ 

Madonna’s representatives are yet to comment on the relative’s claims, when asked by DailyMail.com. 

The 64-year-old’s health scare was shared with the world by her longtime manager Guy Oseary, who revealed on Instagram that Madonna has been forced to postpone her hotly-anticipated 40th anniversary tour as a result of her medical struggles. 

Mr Oseary insisted in his post that the singer and mother-of-six is ‘expected to make a full recovery’ and that her ‘health is improving’, but added that she is ‘still under medical care’. 

According to Page Six, Madonna – who was due to kick off her 84-date Celebration tour in Vancouver, Canada on July 15 – was ‘discovered on Saturday’, when she was ‘taken to the ICU’ and ‘intubated overnight’. 

Although Mr Oseary did not share the specifics of Madonna’s treatment, or the conditions of her hospitalisation, he confirmed that she was taken to the ICU on Saturday and that she was diagnosed with a bacterial infection.

‘On Saturday, June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several-day stay in the ICU,’ he wrote on Wednesday afternoon. 

‘Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care. A full recovery is expected.’

The music manager then revealed that the singer is being forced to postpone the start of her tour, for which she has been rehearsing for months – and which was due to begin in a matter of weeks – writing: ‘At this time we will need to pause all commitments, which includes the tour.’

He did not reveal when Madonna might be well enough to commence the international tour, simply promising fans that he would ‘share more details as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows’.

Speaking to DailyMail.com, a source confirmed that the singer is now ‘out of the ICU and recovering’. 

In April, an insider told DailyMail.com the preparations for the tour were grueling, and she was giving it her everything. 

‘Madonna is really turning it out. She is in incredible shape and is going to kill it with this tour,’ they said. 

‘It may be her last tour, so she wants to make it perfect. She is incredible shape and her body is sick.

‘This is her labour of love. Her perfectionism is driving everyone up the wall but she does not care. The crew is working their a** off because everyone wants to make her happy. 

‘She has no issues whatsoever with firing someone at the drop of a hat.’

Madonna’s children have yet to publicly comment on their mother’s condition – however Lourdes did share an image of herself posing in a racy corset top on her Instagram Stories just hours before Oseary shared the news about the singer’s medical scare.

Meanwhile, Madonna’s eldest son Rocco Ritchie shared a series of images and videos of himself on a motorcycle tour in Transylvania, Romania, on June 26 – two days after his mother’s hospitalisation. 

He made no mention of her health struggles, simply noting that he’d had a ‘crazy trip’ in a ‘crazy place’ and that it was ‘hopefully the beginning of many’.  

It is not known exactly what kind of infection Madonna is suffering from, however bacterial infections can affect many different parts of the body, including the skin, lungs, brain, and blood, according to the Cleveland Clinic.  

‘Common bacterial diseases include UTIs, food poisoning, STIs and some skin, sinus and ear infections,’ the clinic says, noting that the most common form of treatment is a course of antibiotics. 

‘There are many bacterial infections that aren’t usually serious or can be treated easily with antibiotics,’ it explains. 

‘However, any bacterial infection that gets deep into your body, like in your blood, heart, lungs or brain, can be life-threatening.’

The Madonna: The Celebration Tour, was due to run from July 15, 2023, to January 30, 2024.

It would be the singer’s 12th concert tour and will visit cities in North America and Europe for 84 shows. 

The singer’s last Instagram post was on June 20 – four days before her hospitalisation – and featured several images of Madonna rehearsing for the tour, along with the caption: ‘The calm before the storm.’ 

On June 23, she also shared a post to her Instagram story in which she could be seen getting her roots bleached. One day later, she was rushed to the ICU. 

The singer last took to the stage in London’s O2 Arena during her Rebel Heart tour in 2015, the same year she famously took a tumble during a performance at the BRIT Awards. 

While Madonna performed at 75 theatre venues during her Madame X tour, she was forced to cancel several shows due to recurring hip and knee injuries. 

In May 2020, the singer revealed that she was undergoing stem cell treatment in order to treat the injury, while sharing an X-ray image of her knee – which she damaged after falling on stage in late February. 

At the time, Madonna described herself as a’ broken doll held together with tape and glue’ as she announced she was taking some much needed bed-rest. 

The singer’s health and wellbeing have also been the subject of much scrutiny in recent months, with Madonna sparking concern among fans in late 2021 with a series of erratic social media posts – one of which showed her posing with someone who was holding a knife to her neck. 

Then, earlier this year, Madonna came under fierce criticism over her changing appearance, with some speculating that she had undergone plastic surgery when she was seen sporting a drastically altered look at the 2023 Grammy Awards. 

While Madonna was quick to slam the critical comments about her appearance, behind the scenes, an insider told DailyMail.com she was deeply ‘affected’ by the criticism and had started taking steps to ensure that she returned to her more natural self before hitting the stage for her first concert. 

‘Despite what people think, the criticism over her drastically different appearance does affect her,’ the source revealed to DailyMail.com, adding that Madonna was undergoing procedures to restore her natural looks. 

‘She sees and hears what people say about her and, for the tour, she wants to look more like herself again for her fans.’ 

Madonna first toured around the UK in 1987, with her Who’s That Girl World Tour. 

Her performances have been no stranger to controversy, having famously angered the Catholic Church in 1990 when she simulated masturbation on stage, leading Pope John Paul II to call for a boycott of her Blonde Ambition tour.

It was during that same tour that Madonna donned her now-iconic Jean Paul Gaultier conical bra during a sell-out show in Japan.

In 2006 she also infuriated the Church of England by staging a mock crucifixion during her Confessions tour in LA.