An article in the Hollywood reporter, which got it from the Michigan messenger, describes something we would think could never happen to someone who has a famous billionaire sister: Madonna’s brother, Anthony Ciccone, is homeless and was interviewed by the Michigan paper, which was first doing a story about Traverse City becoming magnet for homeless people.
The Michigan city has an exceptional network of services for homeless as the churches have collaborated to provide free meals for them every night, as well as ‘warmth, showers, laundry, food, computers, telephone and other services for four hours most days’, and even a place to sleep during winter. This program explained why so many homeless are attracted by Traverse city and among them, Madonna’s brother.
I suppose the Michigan paper jumped on the occasionto ask him questions once he revealed who he was, and I have to repost the whole interview since this is quite unbelievable,…this is what Ciccone declared:
‘My family turned their back on me, basically, when I was having a hard time, you think I haven’t answered this kind of question a bazillion times — why my sister is a multibazillionarie, and I’m homeless on the street?’
‘Never say never, this could happen to anybody.’
‘I don’t have any income, I’ve got to go collect bottles and cans, do odd jobs.’
Because churches cannot provide shelters to people all the time, he even talked about his cold-related injuries:
‘They can’t do everything all the time for everybody, they just don’t have the resources. These people that run these things are all volunteers, they don’t get paid to do these things.’
‘Where do you go at 8 o’clock on a Sunday morning and you have no money in your pocket?’
‘If you spend enough time on frozen concrete without proper insulation you will get frostbite, you have no idea how gruesome it is.’
‘You get nerve damage. That’s the milder stage, in the severe stage you have tissue damage, that is when you lose parts of your body.’
‘I got frostbite on my feet last winter. A friend of mine lost all ten toes. Several have died of hypothermia.’
‘You go and find a place to stay warm like the lobby at the jail, or you take a walk to get your feet warm and go to Meijer’s and sit in the lobby there.’
According to the Hollywood reporter his last job was at the family winery, Ciccone Vineyard & Winery in Suttons Bay, Michigan, a year and a half ago.
Of course, we don’t know the whole story and why he got fired from the family business, family affairs can be complicated but this seems really embarrassing for Madonna who is basically seeing as someone letting her brother dying in the streets.