Madonna’s latest Instagram post explains why the pop icon is “not afraid of death.”
The singer shared an emotional post on Thursday that explained her rationale.
“When I was a child my mother died. I became fascinated with cemeteries. I was not afraid of death because I knew this was the only way I could be with my mother again,” Madonna wrote. “As life went on I lost many people that I loved dearly, and came to look at death as a kind of doorway to eternal life.”
The singer went into more depth on her Instagram story, saying that her mother’s death “left a haunting memory. A deep longing. A terrible fear of abandonment.”
“I would follow my father everywhere reminding him that if he ever died I wanted to be buried with him,” Madonna wrote. “As life went on I lost many people that I loved dearly, and came to look at death as a kind of doorway to eternal life. Even when my lovers left me I saw it as a kind of death. When they hurt me I would have a ritualistic burial for them. I would bury my fear of abandonment before it could overtake me.”
“I found solace visiting other people’s graves. Trying to connect to the souls of all the lost ones. I wanted to reassure them that they were not alone. None of us are,” Madonna continued, recalling the past advice she was given from the Church. “’We are all married to God.’ That’s what sister Mary Theresa always used to say to me. ‘I am the bride of Christ. I am the bride of love.’”
She ended the note with, “This sounded so romantic to me. I imagined I could tell her all my deepest secrets. ‘Bury your fear. Bury your fear,’ she would say to me. Then she would take my hand and we would walk amongst the dead, under the light of the full moon.”
Madonna lost her mother to breast cancer when the singer was just 5 years old. She has recently been open about her attitude toward death after reminiscing about a near-death health scare that forced her to postpone her “Celebration” tour in 2023.
“A year ago today, I had just come home from the hospital after surviving a life-threatening illness, I could barely stand in my backyard holding one sparkler,” she said in a since-deleted Instagram post last July, NME reported at the time.
“I made a miraculous recovery and had an amazing year. Thank you God,” Madonna reportedly wrote. “Life is beautiful!”
The singer did not share exact details of the health scare. However, NME also reported that Madonna battled a “serious bacterial infection” in June 2023.