Madonna’s Sister Opens Up About Envy She Felt Over Her Sibling’s Fame: ‘Everyone Wants Their Own Level of Success’

Madonna might be a material girl, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the singer's seven siblings are. And in a recent viral video featuring Paula Ciccone highlighted just how difficult growing up in her sister's shadow was. 

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Paula says: “She wasn't singing all the time, but she was always doing something to be the center of anything.” 

Madonna’s sister also opened up about how having a famous sister made it hard for her to model. “It’s hard because I'm putting myself in the same place she is,” Paula said. 

When asked if she felt envious of her sister, Paula adds: “Well, yeah sure. Everyone wants their own level of success, whatever they’re doing.”

Paula is only one year younger than Madonna, but the two have had very different careers. Madonna herself has released over 50 songs, whereas her sister Paula tried to model and act with little to no success. 

Apparently, that success made it harder for the family to be around Madonna, with Paula remembering, “The power that they get outside of the family tends to come home with them. So whenever they come home, there's always this barrier. You have to get through the barrier, and then you can start talking to them. And let's face it: when you get in a situation where you're being treated really well, it's really hard to put it aside and just be a person. Yeah, it's also hard to talk to that person as a person if they're not willing.” 

Currently, Paula is 65 years old and an award-winning winemaker at the Vineyard and Winery in Suttons Bay, Michigan, along with her sibling Joan and their father Silvio. 

All about Madonna’s other siblings 

Aside from Paula, Madonna has seven other siblings—three sisters and TK four brothers.  One of them actually thinks that the singer's fame helped break into the music industry. 

Says Mario Ciccone, “I was having a conversation with my sister on the phone one day, and she encouraged me to come to L.A. to check it out for a year and see if I could find some people to play with out there. I packed up all my stuff and, along with a drummer friend, moved to L.A.”

Mario has since left music, though after not finding the success he thought he would. He now works in marketing at Maverick Records. 

“I love to make music, and I started to see how the industry worked, but I didn‘t want to be at the performer's end of it anymore,” Mario revealed. “I made a choice to be on the end that I am at now because I wanted to be involved in this industry for the long term, helping bands and breaking new bands.”

All of Madonna’s siblings have the same mother and father and were all born in Michigan.  Six of her siblings are still alive. The eldest — Anthony Ciccone — passed away at age 66 in 2023. 

Madonna wrote at the time of his death, "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, and outside the box. You planted so many seeds.” 

The other famous Ciccone would be Madonna’s younger brother Christopher, who was a featured back up dancer in her music video  “Lucky Star,” and the artistic director of the 1990 tour Blond Ambition World Tour and the 1993 tour The Girlie Show.Now, he works as an interior designer for Miami luxury condos and Manhattan restaurants, which he developed a love for after designing Madonna’s apartment. “She had just married Sean [Penn], and they had a two-bedroom apartment. She needed help buying some furniture, and that’s where my interest began: filling a space, designing a room, and working with a client.”

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