Madonna Says She Visited Her Late Mother “On the Other Side” While in a Medically Induced Coma

Madonna has opened up about a profound spiritual experience she had while in a medically induced coma during a severe bacterial infection.

Appearing on the Jay Shetty Podcast — in an episode posted Monday, Sept. 29 — the pop icon recounted an episode from the four days she spent unconscious after being hospitalized in June 2023. While she was still unresponsive, she says her late mother appeared to her and asked, “Do you want to come with me?”

“I was almost there on the other side, and I had a conscious moment. My mother appeared to me, and she said, ‘Do you want to come with me?’”

Madonna says she replied, “No.” Although she remained unconscious, her assistant heard her say the word aloud. When she regained awareness, Madonna realized that the refusal was not about dying but about the need to return and repair fractured relationships — to forgive and to let go of lingering resentments.

One person she specifically mentioned was her younger brother, Christopher Ciccone, who died at 63 in October. The siblings had a strained relationship for years after Madonna rose to fame — at one point Ciccone accused her of outing him during an interview — but Madonna said his illness brought them back together. In a post at the time of his death she wrote that, although they hadn’t spoken for some time, “When my brother got sick … we found our way back to each other.”

On Jay Shetty’s show, Madonna explained that the vision of her mother helped her answer a difficult question: would she set aside pride and extend help to someone she once considered an enemy? She described the relief she felt when she chose compassion. “It was such a load off my back, such a weight that was removed,” she said, recalling holding his hand and telling him, “I love you, and I forgive you,” even as he was dying.

The interview — largely centered on Madonna’s spiritual evolution — arrives more than a year after she completed her Celebration Tour, a run that was previously postponed because of the illness that led to her coma. She’s been candid about how arduous the recovery has been; during a tour stop in March 2024 she admitted she wasn’t sure she would be able to walk again.

Reflecting on that period, she said it felt terrifying to be so close to death. “It was pretty scary — obviously I didn’t know for four days, because I was in an induced coma, but when I woke up, the first word I said was, ‘No,’” she told audiences. “I’m pretty sure God was saying to me, ‘You wanna come with us? You wanna come with me, you wanna go this way?’ And I said, ‘No. No!’”

Watch Madonna’s full interview above on the Jay Shetty Podcast.

Source