It’s been six months since Madonna was hospitalized for a bacterial infection. It was serious. She was in the ICU and had to be intubated, but rallied and was released after a few days to finish recovering at home. The only roadblock to her taking it easy was the 40 date Celebration Tour she was due to begin a few weeks later. Though she did postpone the tour, there was concern that Madge might push herself to do too much too soon to get it back on track. Knock wood, those fears seem to have been unfounded. Madonna kicked off the European leg of the tour in London on October 14, and just last week she began the North American leg with shows in New York. Fans captured video at one of the shows this weekend where Madge revealed she was in an induced coma for 48 hours during her hospitalization:
Madonna is sharing new details about her recent hospitalization for a bacterial infection.
The singer, 65, opened up about her June illness that had her admitted to the intensive care unit for several days. She revealed details about the life-changing situation while performing a show in Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday night, telling the crowd that she was in “an induced coma for 48 hours” in June.
She then took a moment to thank her Kabbalah teacher, who was by her side at the hospital. “The only voice I heard was his. I heard him say, ‘Squeeze my hand,’” Madonna told the crowd, according to a fan-captured video shared on X (formerly known as Twitter).
The Grammy winner also gave a shout-out to her friend Shavawn, who was in the audience on Saturday and credited her with saving her life by rushing her to the hospital.
“There are some very important people in the room tonight that were with me at the hospital. There’s one very important woman who dragged me to the hospital,” she said of Shavawn in the clip. “I don’t even remember; I passed out on my bathroom floor and woke up in the ICU … She saved my life.”
During her candid speech to the crowd, Madonna also recounted her first moments upon coming out of her coma. “There were a couple of things I thought about when I first became conscious and I saw my six incredible children sitting around me — by the way, I had to almost die to get all my kids in one room” she quipped, referring to Lourdes, 27, Rocco, 23, David Banda, 18, Mercy James, 17, and 11-year-old twins Estere and Stella.
I sure hope Shavawn was in a VIP section of that audience! She does indeed deserve the biggest shout-out. I would’ve guessed a thank you to the doctors and hospital staff before a nod to her Kabbalah teacher, though. Of course that could’ve happened at an unfilmed moment. It’s been a minute since we’ve heard Madonna talk about Kabbalah, non? But hey, if it got her through then amen. To me she’s never sounded more Jewish than when she says “I had to almost die to get all my kids in one room.” It’s giving me flashbacks to my grandmother kvelling the few times her five adult children were together.
Madonna is taking some time to celebrate a holiday (that’s one) for the rest of the year, and will pick up again in Boston on January 8. I was pleased to see on the schedule that she’s never burning up (that’s two) by performing more than two days in a row. Tickets are still available through late April for cities in the US, Canada, and Mexico where she’ll keep on pushing her tour over the borderline (that’s three and I’m done).
photos credit: PopCulture/Backgrid, Getty and via Instagram
Her kids must have been terrified. Glad she’s recovered.
Madonna needs to live to 100.
Hmm. Maybe she should extend her gratitude to her fans and start her shows within a half-hour of the time she’s supposed to start.
Nothing will ever convince me that her “bacterial infection” wasn’t an opioid overdose. And I say this as an old who has long loved her music (from Everybody until her last good album IMO, Confessions On A Dance Floor). She simply can’t accept aging, and it’s so sad to see her in her current state. No one is saying she needs to retire to a rocking chair but there’s a lot to be said for aging gracefully and she’s opted out of that to date. Do a Helen Mirren! Be old and sexy but not obnoxious and talentless, you’re better than that gurl.
80s Madonna would be appalled. Kablablah priest indeed! She’s an even bigger joke than Goop, and Madonna used to have a great sense of humour at least….sigh
I think there’s a lot of sexism or misogyny in that old male rockers abound: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, etc etc, and no one is harping on them to look or dress their age. But the knives are always out for any woman who defies the norms.
I may be misunderstanding your comment. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards look ancient, they seem to wear their age proudly. Madonna is not defying the norms of celebrity because she too is undergoing all manner of procedures to hide her age. When this came up last year there was a back and forth around ‘Madonna can do whatever she wants’ and that misses the point entirely. Fans wanted Madonna to continue to be the ground breaking, confident, bad ass while aging as she was early in her career. Her current look is not that
That’s a lot to put on a person with zero evidence to back it up with.
If she was in sepsis, then they might have had to put her in a coma in order to take the stress off of her affected organs – like intubation to help support her lungs.
Having had a serious bacterial infection that started in my bladder and spread into my kidneys a few years ago, I can relate to her illness. When an infection starts spreading into major organs you are in BIG trouble. I had to be hospitalized and although I didn’t have to be put into an induced coma, I had an antibiotic drip, catheter and major pain relievers for several days. It was awful. So no, it wasn’t an opiate OD.
Medically induced comas are very serious.
Madonna is lucky she has regained her health.
She seems hell bent on touring, so good for her. She is feeling strong and living her life as she chooses, more power to her.
I still remember she told Rupert Everett on MTV that she didn’t see herself touring in her old age.
We all say a lot of things about what we would or wouldn’t when we get older. Thankfully most of us aren’t famous and don’t have to worry about those statements being public and referenced later on.
65 is “old age” now?
I know touring is challenging, but still. it’s also fun!
I don’t know the details of her medical condition, but my little niece got a bacterial infection – the “flesh eating bacteria: – and was in a medically induced coma so the surgeons could keep going in and removing more diseased tissue each day. It was horrifying. So glad both my niece and Madonna are on the mend, whatever Madonna dealt with!!
I do wish Madonna had not had so much plastic surgery to her face.
One of the things about The Rolling Stones still touring that is different vs. Madonna touring is the fact that Mick, Keith, Ronny all look every day of their ages. Good for them. Keep going.
I kind of want them to continue to tour, right up until they drop on stage. We are The Rolling Stone, we do what we want!
Madonna is still a huge star and she chose all that surgery.
JMo, why? If anyone made a career out of breaking rules snd setting styles, it is Madonna. She undercut her own power by having the surgery to meet the Women must not age crap.
She could easily gone the way of The Stones, toured, and defied the rules.
I’m Madonna, I MAKE the rules!
Bad choice, IMO.
I know it is easy for me who is not in the spotlight to say, but I wish she had done exactly what you are saying @JaneS. It would have been the ultimate rebellion, and I would have loved it. Easier said than done, though, I imagine.
She’s either going to get reamed by judgy people being critical of her natural aging face or raked over the coals for not doing the plastic surgery (or other efforts) as tastefully as people expect. She can’t win.
Exactly this. There is a whole lot of sexism and ageism in these comments. Madonna has never behaved according to someone else’s standards—least of all the pearl-clutching set. Suggesting she should “age gracefully like Helen Mirren”? GTFO
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a complication of plastic surgery. I’d bet money on it. Staph infection for sure.
Could very well be @Sarah B — I’ve read that cosmetic procedures to the head and chest area do carry a risk of post-surgery staph infections and we all know she’s had both of these, likely several times. She hasn’t mentioned the actual cause. Hmmmm….
I think she had a kidney infection that started as a UTI, like actress Tanya Roberts who died of a UTI that had spread to her kidneys.
“Up to 31 percent of sepsis cases start as UTIs, representing 2.8 million to 9.8 million cases in the U.S. and Europe, leading to as many as 1.6 million deaths.”