Madonna has shared a heartfelt and lengthy tribute to her brother Christopher Ciccone, who has died at the age of 63 after a battle with cancer.
Alongside a series of photos of the two of them together on Instagram, the pop icon wrote: "My brother Christopher is gone. He was the closest human to me for so long. It's hard to explain our bond but it grew out of an understanding that we were different and society was going to give us a hard time for not following the status quo.
"We took each other's hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood. In fact, dance was a kind of superglue that held us together. Discovering dance in our small Midwestern town saved me and then my brother came along, and it saved him too. My ballet teacher created a safe space for my brother to be gay, a word that was not spoken or even whispered where we lived."
"When I finally got the courage to go to New York to become a dancer, my brother followed. And again we took each other's hands, and we danced through the madness of New York City! We danced through the madness of the AIDS epidemic," she continued. "We went to funerals and we cried, and we went dancing."
Christopher worked closely with his sister early in her career, serving as the art director on her Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990 and as the tour director on The Girlie Show tour in 1993.
He published his memoir, Life With My Sister Madonna, in 2008, which became a bestseller. It is thought that the siblings fell out over its contents.
"The last few years have not been easy," Madonna's tribute concluded. "We did not speak for some time but when my brother got sick, we found our way back to each other... We closed our eyes and we danced. Together. I'm glad he's not suffering anymore. There will never be anyone like him. I know he's dancing somewhere."