Madonna’s Brother Anthony Ciccone Homeless, Why Won’t Madonna Help?

Sister, can you spare a dime?

In an article written by Eartha Jane Melzer for local newspaper, The Michigan Messenger, Melzer interviewed none other than one of Madonna’s siblings, older brother, Anthony Ciccone, 55, about his plight as a homeless man living under a bridge in the Ciccone’s home state of Michigan.

In an article written about resources available for Michigan’s homeless population, journalist Eartha Jane Melzer reported that Traverse City, Michigan, is a popular epicenter for the homeless “because of the city’s exceptional network of services for people on the street.” But here was the shocking part of that statement: Melzer reported that included in that grouping of “people on the street” was 55 year old Anthony Ciccone, “brother of Michigan native and pop star Madonna,” states the Michigan Messenger article.

What, at first glance, looked like a joke or typo, now begs the question of why a woman like Madonna, who is worth an estimated $650 million, would let one of her siblings lead a life on the streets?

Anthony Ciccone gave a voluntary interview to The Michigan Messenger newspaper, acting as a spokesperson of sorts for the local homeless population. Ciccone told the paper, “This is a unique system with the churches here. You won’t find this in too many places.” Anthony Ciccone spoke to the reporter while eating dinner served up by church volunteers who serve and help the local homeless.

In this unfortunate and ironic tale, Anthony Ciccone explained that he has been among the city’s homeless for a year and a half since losing a job at his father’s vineyard and winery in Suttons Bay, MI. According to the article, “[Ciccone] said that it annoys him that some people are amused that a person from such a high profile family would end up sleeping, as he does, under the Union St. bridge.”

“My family turned their back on me, basically, when I was having a hard time,” Ciccone told the paper. “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?”

It is not clear why Anthony Ciccone was let go from his own family’s wine vineyard, and no one really knows what’s tranpsired between Ciccone, the rest of his siblings, his father and stepmother, and his famous younger sister, Madonna. But Anthony Ciccone says that what has happened to him “could happen to anybody.” Something that many Americans have feared and continue to fear since the start of the 2008 “Great Recession” that has hit so many families hard.

Anthony Ciccone told The Michigan Messenger that he is without any means of income, saying, “I’ve got to go collect bottles and cans, do odd jobs.”

To add insult to injury, literally, Madonna’s older brother, Anthony Ciccone, says that last winter he got “cold-related injuries,” more specifically, frost bite on his feet, and Ciccone is afraid that he will fall victim to hypothermia this upcoming Michigan winter.