From Rihanna’s papal-inspired Met Gala look to Kate Moss’ wedding dress, some of the most famous moments of 21st Century fashion have come from the brilliant mind of John Galliano.

Born in Gibraltar to an Italian father and Spanish mother, and raised in south London, his quirky aesthetic has been synonymous with British fashion.

But while he’s lead a very glamorous life, rubbing shoulders with A-listers and supermodels on the red carpet, Galliano has also struggled with addiction, alcoholism and substance abuse.

Now, a new documentary is set to explore the designer’s life, scandals and triumphant return to Paris Couture Fashion Week, after being dropped in 2011 for hurling anti-Semitic insults at a group of Jewish women in a Paris bar.

Directed by Oscar-winning Kevin Macdonald, High & Low: John Galliano, will show the peaks and troughs of the 63-year-old’s high-flying career.

Now 10-years sober, he sat down with Macdonald to discuss his rise, fall and return – from the pits of Paris Fashion Week to one of the most sought-after names in the industry.  

Raised the child of a plumber, in south London, Galliano says he was inspired by his Spanish mother, who dressed him and his sisters in immaculately pressed and starched clothes whenever they left the family home.

At the age of 16, he left school to study textile design at East London College, before enrolling at the prestigious St Martin’s School of Art in 1980.

He worked as a dresser at the National Theatre and threw himself into the London club scene – experiences that undoubtedly imprinted his design aesthetic.

After starting an eponymous line in the 1980s, Galliano was appointed as the designer of Givenchy in 1996.

He soon transitioned to Dior, before being spectacularly fired after he was filmed expressing admiration for Hitler and telling a woman, who he thought was Jewish, that her parents should have been gassed.

Heavily intoxicated, he then allegedly ranted to an Asian man sitting with her: ‘****ing Asian b******’.

During his one-day trial in June 2011, Galliano admitted two instances of making anti-Semitic and racist comments and, that September, was given two suspended fines, totalling 6,000 euros.

Galliano’s lawyer cited his struggles with drugs, alcohol and work, noting that he was designing up to 32 collections each year. 

Additionally, he was ordered to pay three plaintiffs and five antidiscrimination groups 1 euro each in damages and a combined 16,500 euros in costs.

Face of Dior, Natalie Portman, was among those outraged by his outburst more than two decades ago.

At the time, the Oscar-winning actress said: ‘In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr Galliano in any way.

‘I hope at the very least these terrible comments remind us to reflect and act upon combating these still-existing prejudices that are the opposite of all that is beautiful.’

Galliano consistently maintained that he is not anti-Semitic or racist but acknowledged struggling with addiction to alcohol, Valium and sleeping tablets, leading him to seek rehabilitation.

It seems that this was the tip of the iceberg for Galliano, who had a string of drunken indiscretions to his name.

Years earlier, coming off the high of another Fashion Week, Galliano stripped naked and spent four hours in a lift at The Ritz, telling guests who tried to enter that he was a lion, while growling at them.

The hotel called his office in Paris, who offered to cover the bills of any guests who had become inconvenienced. 

Now admitting his demons, Galliano begins the documentary by saying: ‘I’m going to tell you everything’ – from dealing with his devout Catholic parents’ horrified reaction to his homosexuality to his abuse of Valium, bromides, amphetamines and sleeping pills.

‘I was committing suicide, slowly,’ he says.

He also revealed struggles with his workload and depression following the deaths of his father and close friends Steven Robinson and Alexander McQueen.

Despite his explanations, the fallout from Galliano’s rant resulted in the termination of his 15-year tenure as creative director at Dior – where he was earning £4 million-a-year.

The designer was exiled from fashion – yet only temporarily – and he designed Kate Moss’ wedding dress the same year, calling the project his ‘creative rehab’.

In an interview with WWD, Kevin Macdonald recalled being in New York when videos of Galliano’s anti-Semantic outburst emerged online.

‘I was kind of repulsed by him and the way he looked,’ the film director said.

‘I have lost family in the Holocaust and my grandfather’s family all died.

‘That’s a part of why I felt a personal repulsion, but at the same time, I’m always interested in films about ambiguous characters who you’re not quite sure what to think of them.’

A number of John Galliano’s friends and former employees share their thoughts on-screen, including Anna Wintour, Naomi Campbell, Charlize Theron, Amanda Harlech and Kate Moss.

‘We’re both shy and a bit awkward, ’til we’ve had a drink,’ Moss says, chuckling. 

The supermodel starred in Galliano’s first show in Paris, admitting ‘I was so nervous’.

She goes on to explain that Galliano, now a good friend, taught her how to walk down the catwalk: ‘He said put your hips and your pelvis forwards… and lean back.

‘No one gives you direction like John, there was always a story in every show. It’s fantasy, and that’s what fashion should be.’

‘He’d say, “You’re a princess and you’ve just escaped the castle… and the walls are after you. You’ve got to run Kate, run!”‘ 

Edward Enninful, former editor-in-chief of British Vogue, adds: ‘For other designers, they were just models. But with John, they became actresses. 

‘He would take them on a journey, through countries, through time. And they would come up feeling so enthused, so excited.’

There is also an appearance from Philippe Virgitti, the target of the designer’s anti-Semitic comments.

During the 2011 court hearing in Paris, Virgitti stated: ‘I don’t think he’s racist or anti-Semitic. I just think he’s very ill.’ 

However, in the documentary, he explains how Galliano’s verbal attack has negatively impacted his life – and does not forgive him.

Galliano insists that he apologised to Virgitti, but Virgitti denies this. 

‘There is no real explanation for the designer’s behaviour. His psychiatrist believes he looked, at random, for a hateful stereotype in our culture,’ he says.

Meanwhile, Sidney Toledano, the Jewish boss of Dior, suggests that anti-Semitism could have been weaved into his Catholic upbringing.

The film also shows a clip of the designer the day after his father’s funeral in 2003, where Galliano’s voice appears slurred, and his pupils gigantic, as he prepares for his next fashion show.

Following a two-month stay at Cottonwood Rehab Clinic in Arizona, Galliano briefly joined Oscar de la Renta in New York. 

The move was reportedly arranged by Anna Wintour, American Vogue editor-in-chief, and Jonathan Newhouse, chairman of Conde Nast International. 

Mr Newhouse is also said to have put Galliano in contact with Rabbi Barry Marcus, who, at the time, was the senior minister of Central Synagogue in London.

Rabbi Marcus educated the designer in antisemitism, introduced him to a Holocaust survivor and invited him to services at his synagogue. 

‘Over time, we built up a relationship and I’m absolutely satisfied that to brand him as an antisemite would be an injustice,’ the rabbi explained. 

‘His knowledge of Jews and Judaism was actually very limited.’ 

In 2014, John Galliano was appointed creative director of Belgian brand Maison Margiela, which described him as one of the ‘greatest undisputed talents of all time’.

‘Margiela is ready for a new charismatic creative soul,’ said Renzo Rosso, president of the label’s parent company OTB, in a statement. 

‘John Galliano is one of the greatest, undisputed talents of all time. A unique, exceptional couturier for a Maison that always challenged and innovated the world of fashion. 

‘I look forward to his return to create that fashion dream that only he can create, and wish him to here find his new home.’ 

Galliano, who oversees the design of all Margiela lines, including couture and women’s ready-to-wear, presented his first collection for the house during Paris Couture Week in January 2015. 

Marking the first time Rihanna wore Margiela to the Met Gala, Galliano created the singer’s iconic Pope-inspired ensemble for the 2018 event, following the theme, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. 

The extraordinary look, featuring a heavily beaded robe, matching mitre and mini dress, referenced Galliano’s Dior Couture 2001 collection, which was inspired by papal regalia. 

The release of High & Low coincides with a catwalk comeback as Galliano made a triumphant return to Paris Couture Fashion Week with Maison Margiela’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection.

In January, Galliano transformed the left bank underbelly of Paris’ Pont Alexandre III bridge into a 1920s dive bar, illuminated by a subdued glow from spotlights.

The Artisan collection, which showcased unique fabric techniques and porcelain-effect make-up, earned the designer a thunderous, five-minute standing ovation. 

Now a decade sober, Galliano, who was once recognised for strutting down the catwalk at the end of a show, has adopted a low-profile approach and no longer makes an appearance.

Galliano told Macdonald that he wasn’t expecting to be forgiven following the documentary, but instead to be ‘a little more understood’. 

The collection received worldwide critical acclaim, with Anna Wintour telling The Times ‘the Maison Margiela couture show captured so many people’s imaginations’ and ‘it was a reminder that when John’s work soars, it lifts fashion higher.’

LAUDERDALE-BY-THE-SEA, Fla. — The Buffalo Bills have a new safety this season.

He sometimes plays close to the line of scrimmage, even lining up in the gaps and banging helmets with interior linemen. They use him as a hybrid linebacker in a three-safety dime package. He has played free safety, strong safety, outside cornerback, inside cornerback, left linebacker and right linebacker. And more.

Physically and mentally, he is being challenged, but he’s grateful, content and all in.

The Bills’ new safety is Jordan Poyer. It’s the same Jordan Poyer who played for the team the previous six seasons, the only player in the NFL to have 500 or more tackles, 20 or more interceptions and 10 or more sacks in that time frame, a Bills captain for the fourth time, an Ed Block Courage Award winner in 2017, a Pro Bowl safety last year and an All-Pro the year before.

But this is a new Jordan Poyer because of ayahuasca.

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In the spring of 2020, NFL team facilities were closed because of COVID-19, so Bills defenders met in Washington, D.C., for a few days to train, study and bond.

The first evening, cornerback Josh Norman welcomed the players to his home, and out came the shots of tequila. When Poyer was handed a shot, he looked at it and then at his teammates.

He put it down.

Norman and the others, who had never seen him turn down a drink, were taken aback.

“What?” one said. “Come on, Deejay Poyo!”

Deejay Poyo was Poyer’s alter ego. Inspired by tequila and a turntable, Poyer became someone else. And for Poyer, there was value in being someone else.

What his teammates didn’t know was that Poyer had not put alcohol to his lips in about three months, since he downed a shot of tequila on March 13 in the Puerto Vallarta airport bar during a 12-hour flight delay.

Poyer spent his childhood in Astoria, Ore., a picturesque town on the mouth of the Columbia River not far from the Pacific Ocean. His mother and stepfather worked at a juvenile detention center and raised him with a strict hand. When he was no longer under their watch, unsupervised as a freshman at Oregon State, Poyer drank. And drank and drank.

It never seemed to affect his play in college, where he was a consensus All-American. And despite his continued drinking, he made steady progress in his early NFL years.

In his third season, when he was an emerging starter with the Cleveland Browns, he DM’d an Instagram model after she liked one of his posts on Twitter. She was a freshman at Florida Atlantic, a small-town girl from the Adirondacks who knew nothing about football but thought Poyer was cute. He traveled to Florida to meet her, and before the weekend was over, Poyer declared, “I’m going to marry this girl.”

Poyer made numerous trips to Florida that offseason. That spring as Rachel Bush was finishing her freshman year of college, she learned she was pregnant. After their daughter, Aliyah, was born, Poyer signed with the Bills, and the family moved to Buffalo. He and Rachel married in 2018.

His drinking was out of control by then. He would down a six-pack of IPAs in 20 to 30 minutes for a quick buzz. Blacking out was a regular occurrence. His behavior tested his marriage, but there was a draw between him and Rachel like a north pole to south.

After the Bills lost to the Houston Texans in the wild-card round of the 2019 playoffs, Poyer was crestfallen. He says he drank heavily every day for five weeks. At one point Rachel rid their home of all alcohol, but he would still sneak what he could.

Rachel says her husband hid alcohol from her beneath bathroom cabinets and other places “like a child.”

He was close to losing her.

The drinking, he realized, was an attempt to relieve stress — stress from football expectations and stress from family life. He was a worrier, except with a drink in his hand.

Poyer went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Then another, and another.

The get-together at Norman’s house was his first significant temptation.

“When I put that drink down for the first time, it was almost like I overcame a demon,” Poyer says.

The more time that passed, the less Poyer wanted to drink. He has no desire for it now, and the smell of alcohol almost makes him gag.

Being sober didn’t make him immune to anxiety and depression, however. In the 2022 season, he missed five games with elbow, foot, knee and rib injuries. When the Bills lost to the Bengals in the divisional playoff round, Poyer felt responsible for not doing more.

And his angst ran deeper than football.

“I still felt like there was something missing because I have this beautiful house, a beautiful family, everything anyone could ask for,” he says. “I still felt a sense of unhappiness, a sense of not understanding who I was, and why I was the way I was. A part of me felt guilty just because I was living this way.”

Poyer couldn’t come to terms with why, despite all his shortcomings, he was in such an enviable position. His football journey was improbable. No major college wanted him until Oregon State came in with a late offer to grayshirt, meaning his scholarship wouldn’t begin until January of his freshman year. He was chosen in the seventh round of the 2013 NFL draft, came into the league as a cornerback, was cut six games into his rookie season and then had to learn a new position with a new team. He took a blind-side hit that put him in the hospital for two days with a lacerated kidney and a concussion. His career could have been over then.

Yet by now he has outlasted 191 of the 217 players drafted ahead of him. And he hasn’t just survived in the NFL — he has thrived.

What had he done to deserve this?

Was he justifying his good fortune?

Would there be a greater purpose?

In 2018, Poyer saw a therapist for anxiety once a week. It was unfulfilling.

The answers were somewhere else.

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In the Quechua language, ayahuasca (pronounced ‘eye-ah-WAH-ska’) means “vine of the soul.”

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic drug made from the leaves of the Psychotria viridis shrub and the stalks of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine. It has been used for more than a thousand years by Amazonian tribes. Ingesting it can induce a dreamlike feeling, an altered state of consciousness, mystical experiences and euphoria.

In the summer of 2022, Aaron Rodgers revealed he had taken ayahuasca and credited it with helping him have two of the best seasons of his career for the Packers.

Poyer had never heard of ayahuasca at the time. “My first thought was eff that,” Poyer says. “You crazy? I’m not doing that.”

The funny word kept showing up in different conversations on his social media feeds and podcasts. Poyer researched it and became intrigued.

After the difficult 2022 season, Rachel suggested Poyer take a “guys trip” after the season to check out. But “guys trips” usually involve alcohol, and he didn’t want that. Sightseeing isn’t his thing. “What I really wanted to do was work on trying to be a better me,” he says.

He discovered Resonance, a retreat center in Costa Rica on a hilltop overlooking the Pacific coast and the cloud forest of Monteverde.

To prepare his mind to enter a state of awareness, he was to eat only chicken, fish and salad for one month, with no oils and sugar added. Then he had to cut out chicken and fish for the week preceding the ceremony. He also was told to practice yoga and breathing exercises that would be useful if he experienced anxiety during the three ceremonies spread over a week.

In a tiki hut in a wooded, secluded area, a shaman presented each participant with a cup of ayahuasca brew, which is kind of like tea, but with benefits. Taste is not one of them. Poyer says ayahuasca tastes like earth.

“It’s brownish and really thick,” he says. “It almost looks like oil, but it’s darker and thicker. It’s one of the worst things you could ever taste.”

For the first hour after swigging it down, he lay in a bean bag chair in silence, setting intentions. Poyer’s intentions were to understand himself better and love better. Eventually, the shaman provided a second cup, and then, enchantment.

“At first what it felt like was my soul left my body for a good two minutes,” Poyer says.

Initially, it was unsettling.

“People try to control it, but you can’t,” Poyer says. “It took me about five or 10 minutes to figure it out. The ego has to die so the medicine can work. In order to let go and let the medicine do what it’s supposed to do, we have to just breathe.”

For about the next hour, Poyer says the highest version of himself lectured him out loud. It was, in his word, “crazy.” First, highest-version Poyer addressed his desire to understand himself better.

“He was basically saying, ‘Jordan, look at your life, bro — what are you mad at?’ ” Poyer says. “It was what I needed to hear because I wasn’t appreciating anything — not my wife, my daughter, my family, my house. It was all about me and what I wanted.”

Then he turned to loving better. It was, he says, as if a Pandora’s box opened on how to love.

The remainder of the ceremonies, which lasted nine hours each, were about curiosity, energy and connectedness.

“It’s about how to be a good human,” he says. “And it grounds you. Really grounds you.”

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Two days before OTAs began last April, Poyer returned to the Bills’ headquarters and stepped on the scale. The needle settled at 179 pounds, about 20 pounds below his playing weight.

After resuming his regular routine, the weight came back quickly.

He discussed his experience with curious teammates, coaches and the team psychologist. Poyer hoped ayahuasca would elevate his football performances as Rodgers believes it did his, but it hasn’t worked that way for him.

He is the second-leading tackler on his team but hasn’t made as many big plays as he would like. What he has done, according to former Bills defensive coordinator Les Frazier, now an analyst for NFL Network, is enable his defense to be the best it can by lifting others through versatility, sacrifice, toughness and communication. Poyer wears his “C” well.

“I feel like I’m playing OK this year,” Poyer said during the Bills’ bye week on the patio of his Florida home. “I’m not playing the best that I’ve played in my career. There are probably two plays I really want back. But I’m doing a lot. And in a very deep sense, I absolutely love that I’m entrusted with doing as much as I’m doing on this defense.”

Ayahuasca gifted him in another way — with perspective.

Ego is a powerful force in professional athletes. It helps them ascend and often hastens their downfalls. In previous seasons, Poyer believes his responses to successes and failures were too ego-driven. Football was him — he has an NFL logo tattooed on his left shoulder — and he was football.

Not anymore.

“We still have games left that I’m excited about, but I knew some way, somehow, this universe was going to test me this year,” he says. “We lost DaQuan Jones, Matt Milano and Tre’Davious White for the season. It’s hard. This s— is hard. And it’s not just (the losses). I’m 32, not this young spring chicken anymore. You know, s— hurts all the time. But my perspective is I get to play a game that I love, and I’m healthy enough to play. Every time you come out of a game, that’s a win in its own way.”

Poyer’s commitment is such that last season, when a rib injury precluded him from airplane travel, he took a 32-hour round-trip drive to play in a game in Kansas City. He wants to lift a Lombardi Trophy badly, as much as ever. But if it doesn’t happen, he believes he can handle the disappointment better.

On Fridays this season, Poyer, fellow safety Taylor Rapp and assistant strength coach Will Greenberg play crystal bowls at Bills headquarters. “The different tones that you can tune into can enhance chakras within you and help you heal,” he says.

Healing takes many forms.

When Poyer was 12, Louis Dunbar, who has done multiple stints in prison for violent crimes, called him for the first time and stunned him with the revelation he was his biological father. In subsequent conversations, Dunbar often said he wanted to see him or come to one of his games. He never has.

“I always had this hate and resentment toward him I was holding,” says Poyer, who doesn’t know where Dunbar is. “This experience enabled me to let that go. I realize I wouldn’t have anything — my daughter and my wife — if not for him. Even if it was just the seed he gave my mom. So someday I’ll meet him, give him a hug and tell him I’m sorry.”

Rachel has no interest in taking ayahuasca. But she is grateful her husband discovered it.

“After he did ayahuasca, he became like my dream husband,” Rachel says. “I was nervous about what it would do to him, but he came back a totally new man, so appreciative of me and our family.”

Highest-version Poyer made Poyer aware he was not doing the little things — waking up with a smile, giving Rachel a hug on his way out, or being present even when his attention could be divided.

Poyer has turned off his DMs on Instagram and deleted his Twitter/X account. Instagram features a For You page  — a personalized feed based on user engagement patterns. In the past, Poyer’s was filled with posts of other girls, according to Rachel. Now there’s nothing on Poyer’s For You page except football and ayahuasca. She knows because they have one another’s passwords.

“His attention now is 100 percent on me, his family and his career,” says Rachel, who has more than 4 million Instagram followers, an OnlyFans page and a line of skincare products.

Some players feel more pressure when the end is closer than the beginning. The Bills have an out in Poyer’s contract after this season. He isn’t stressing about any of it. His focus is here and now.

Poyer has thought about becoming a football commentator after retirement. But he has more to offer than sports talk. He could talk about why he’s never had a vaccine, why Aliyah is homeschooled, or how he believes God transcends religions.

He could discuss why he has always thought he might be an alien. “I truly feel like I’m not from this planet, always being the odd one out, having different perspectives, thinking differently,” says Poyer, who is fascinated by stars.

Poyer has what philosophers call epistemic humility — he believes knowledge is limited and filtered by personal experiences. And now he is beginning to solve the mysteries of his existence.

“My life has been changed forever,” he says. “And my purpose is to be a bright light for everybody that I touch and connect with.”

In March, Poyer will return to Resonance for another retreat. Also planning to go are his cousin who went with him last year, and some first-timers — his mother, brother, a couple of friends and possibly a couple of teammates. He will be working on a documentary about ayahuasca.

A handpan is a steel musical instrument that generates sound through vibrations. Sound healers and meditators often play the handpan. In Costa Rica, Poyer heard one for the first time and was drawn to it. Now he plays his frequently.

Not long ago, Rachel returned home at about 10 p.m. and was tidying up the kitchen when, in the peace of the night, she heard something coming from the outside balcony upstairs — ethereal, haunting sounds.

“It was kind of like something you would hear in a dream,” Rachel says.

It was music the old Jordan Poyer never could have made.

(Photo: Cooper Neill / Getty Images)

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“The Football 100,” the definitive ranking of the NFL’s best 100 players of all time, is on sale now. Order it here.

Tarek El Moussa talks about his struggle with alcoholism as a young adult.

“I will never forget this day… or this child. I was 20 years old fishing for king salmon in Alaska,” the HGTV personality, 42, wrote via Instagram on Monday, December 4, next to a photo of his younger self. “Unfortunately, all I remember is the terrible hangover I had. I had drunk over 30 shots of vodka and whatever else I could get my hands on. I can still feel the throbbing in my head and the pulsating vein in my temple.”

El Moussa confessed that in his younger years he was “accustomed” to feeling those aches and pains as a result of his continued heavy drinking.

“Most people don’t know this about me, but at 19 my life went downhill, which felt like overnight. I gained 50 pounds, lost my self-confidence, lost my hope and became a raging alcoholic,” he continued. “All my drive was gone. It’s crazy to think that today sometimes I wake up at 3am to go to work, while at 8pm I wake up at 3pm to start my day.”

While El Moussa didn’t share what exactly made him change his life, he noted that everyone deserves a “second chance.” He told his followers that if they found themselves in a similar situation that he ever faced, his upcoming book, Turn your life aroundcan be useful.

“If you’re looking for the help I desperately needed at that moment, check out my new book Flip Your Life,” he wrote. “I wrote it thinking of 20 year old Tarek and what could have helped him.”

El Moussa noted that his book is available for pre-order and will be released in February 2024.

The reality star revealed earlier this year that he had been writing his story for almost a decade and that he had achieved his goal.

“I’ve been working on this book for seven years now and I can’t wait for you to read my personal journey on how I found success and how I got to where I am today,” he said via Instagram in September alongside a video slideshow of various moments in his life. “During that journey you will encounter many setbacks [the] road, including cancer, divorce, business problems, addiction and more. This book has been a long time coming, and I am so proud to share my personal story with you!”

El Moussa has faced a series of life changes and health issues over the years. He was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2013. Shortly after his initial diagnosis, he learned he also had testicular cancer. After entering remission in 2019, El Moussa suffered a back injury that led him to develop a steroid addiction.

“After the cancers, I had that horrible accident on my back and I lost like 60 pounds, and I was on all these opiates. I wasn’t doing well,” El Moussa remembers Fox News digital in February. “This is what people don’t understand – you know, from 2013 to 2016 it was hell.”

In addition to the fight against addiction, El Moussa and ex-wife Christina Hall decided to divorce after seven years of marriage. The exes, who split in 2016, share two children: daughter Taylor, 12, and son Brayden, 7. After their divorce, Tarek moved on with his wife. Heather Rae El Moussa whom he married in October 2021. The couple welcomed their first son, Tristan, in January.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please reach out Substance abuse and mental health administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Fairytale of New York may be one of the great festive songs, but the heartbreaking story behind the song means it will forever be associated not just with Christmas, but with tragedy.

Singer Kirsty MacColl, who duetted with Shane MacGowan in the party hit, died in 2000 aged 41 after a horrific boating accident while diving in Mexico with her two sons.

Her death came just seconds after she heroically saved the life of her son Jamie, who was 15. Her other son Louis, 13, also witnessed the tragedy but survived, as did MacColl’s musician friend James Knight.

As her close friend, MacGowan was among those devastated by her untimely death, with the rocker later admitting he felt depressed singing the tune in later years.

The legendary Pogues frontman himself died today at the age of 65 after an eight-year battle with a brain disorder that followed a long battle with alcohol and drug addiction.

The punk icon had previously lost his mother in shocking circumstances when she died after her car crashed into a wall on New Year’s Day 2017. Therese MacGowan, 87, was driving alone and her death was treated as an accident.

Before his death today, Shane spent months in intensive care after being diagnosed with viral encephalitis last year, with his wife Victoria Mary Clarke sharing regular updates on his condition with fans on social media.

The singer was diagnosed with the disease late last year and is said to have been exacerbated by shingles that spread to the eyes.

Tragically, this was just the latest in a long list of medical mishaps the Celtic band star has suffered over the years.

In 2016 he fell while dancing and broke his pelvis. Since then he has had to use a wheelchair or a Zimmerframe.

Another fall left him with a broken right knee and torn ligaments around his left knee.

The series of falls has left his wife as his caregiver and the singer previously said he does not expect to walk again.

Earlier in his life, the singer overcame a heroin addiction, a rapid fall from a car and numerous drunken fights.

Shane’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke shared the news of his death in a post on Instagram today. I don’t know how to say this so I’m just going to say it,” she wrote.

‘Shane who will always be the light that I hold before me and the benchmark of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the beginning and end of all that is dear to me is to live with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese.

“I am incredibly blessed to have met him and to have loved him and to have been loved so endlessly and unconditionally by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures.”

In a touching tribute, MacGowan’s sister Siobhan shared the lyrics of the Pogues’ song, The Broad Majestic Shannon, in honor of her brother.

As she went to X, she wrote, “So I walked as the day broke; while little birds sang and leaves fell, where once we saw the rowboats land on the Broad Majestic Shannon,’

A statement from MacGowan’s spokesperson confirmed that he “died peacefully at 3.30am this morning, with his wife and sister by his side”.

“Prayers and the last rites were read during his death,” he added.

She’s one of the most famous musicians in history rightfully earning the moniker of ‘Queen of Pop’.

And despite Madonna’s extreme fame and constant attention, her seven siblings have largely stayed out of the spotlight.

The Ciccone siblings, and their 92-year-old father Silvio, keep a low profile, leaving the limelight to Madge herself.

While the siblings have been involved in many arguments over the years, they are said to have gathered around the sister after the megastar was hospitalised with a serious bacterial infection this week.

Sisters Paula, Melanie and Jennifer – and brothers: Martin, Christopher and Mario – are believed to have visited the superstar at the ICU in New York.

The collapse will be a particular fright for the family, after their brother Anthony died in February from throat cancer and respiratory failure, aged 66.

The first five Ciccone siblings grew up in the suburbs of Detroit to Catholic parents, an Italian-American father and French-Canadian mother Madonna (the popstar was named after her).

Tragedy struck in 1963 when the children’s mother died at just 30 of breast cancer.

Madonna, who was only five at the time, has said she would be a completely different person if her mother had not died so young.

In 1966, Madonna’s father Tony married the family’s housekeeper Joan Gustafson and they had two children, Jennifer and Mario.

The children adjusted with difficulty. Madonna, particularly unhappy about her father’s remarriage, rebelled, straining their relationship for many years.

Here, FEMAIL reveals where the siblings are now, from ‘sensible’ sisters living on the family vineyard to troubled brothers battling addiction. 

Anthony Ciccone,  battled homelessness and alcoholism before he died aged 66, in February 

The second-born son of the Ciccone family sadly passed away last year, after a troubled life including time living on the street and battling alcoholism.

Anthony mostly stayed in Michigan and worked for their father, before falling victim to alcoholism and homelessness.   

Like Madonna, Anthony also spent time in New York in his 30s in the late 1980s.

Carolina Gengo, 59, who dated him at the time, described him in a positive light. ‘He was a lost soul trying to find his way but he was a good person,’ she told Dailymail.com last year.

‘He had books everywhere, that was all he really had. He was into reading about life and philosophy,’ said Gengo. ‘And he wanted to sit around and talk about it,’ she added.

‘He talked about what it was like being the brother of Madonna, he didn’t like being known as the brother of Madonna’, she said.

Gengo recounted one occasion when on his birthday his sister’s assistant called to ask how much money he wanted as a gift. That, she said, alienated him.

After some years of sleeping rough under a bridge in Michigan Madonna’s family said they would reincorporate estranged Anthony in 2017.

It came afterhe suggested publicly that his family had turned their backs on him. ‘I’m a zero in their eyes; a non-person, an embarrassment,’ he told the Daily Mail in 2011.

‘If I froze to death, my family probably wouldn’t know or care about it for six months.’

Anthony said at the time that he had been living under a river bridge in Michigan with a sleeping bag and his sole companion, another street dweller named Michael.

He also claimed he once worked in Alaska’s fishing industry and as a photographer’s assistant in New York.

But tougher times saw him making a few dollars doing odd jobs and collecting bottles and cans from people’s dustbins.

Madonna had known about his plight, and repeatedly offered to help by paying for him to go into rehab. His father also offered to give him his job back if he got professional help.

He had not always been receptive though. ‘My family seem to think rehab is some kind of magic panacea for life’s ills,’ he once said.

Nonetheless things appeared to look up for Ciccone after a stint in rehab in 2017 and his reintegration to family life.

Karen McCarthy, a founder of rehab clinic Dann’s House, confirmed his stay, telling the Sunday People: ‘Anthony loved it at Dann’s House for quite a while, and made significant improvements in his life while he was with us.

‘Dann’s House does good work with people who are vulnerable. We’ve seen tremendous, positive results.’   

In a statement following his death, Joe Henry, who is the husband of Madonna’s sister Melanie Ciccone, wrote: ‘My brother-in-law, Anthony Gerard Ciccone, exited this earthly plane last evening. I’ve known him since I was 15, in the spring of our lives in Michigan so many years now gone.’

‘Anthony was a complex character; and god knows: we tangled in moments, as true brothers can. But I loved him, and understood him better than I was sometimes willing to let on,’ he added.

‘But trouble fades; and family remains – with hands reached across the table. Farewell, then, brother Anthony. I want to think the god your blessed mother (and mine) believed in has her there, waiting to receive you. At least for today, no one shall dissuade me from this vision,’ said Ciccone, ending his note.

Martin Ciccone, 75, recovering alcoholic and voice over artist

Like his late brother Anthony, Martin Ciccone has suffered a troubled past in which he’s battled alcohol abuse, DUI arrests, time in jail, and multiple stints in rehab. 

In 2013, while working at a rehab centre in Hollywood for alcoholics and drug addicts, Martin told how his famous sister is helping him out financially by paying for a new set of false teeth for him.

He said: ‘We are on good terms and she’s helping me out. She’s getting me some new teeth. I’m hoping to start doing voiceover work again for cartoons and video games and get back on my feet.’

He’s also had a stint in the US army, and followed in his sister’s footsteps with a music career.

In 1994, he released a debut rap album under the name MC Ciccone, which included numerous bitter digs at his sister. 

In 1999, after being without a record contact for several years, he was finally persuaded by Madonna to enter rehab to deal with his alcohol problem — which she paid for — causing him to miss her second wedding. 

He started a restaurant in Los Angeles, and went back into rehab again in 2003.

 Divorced with a daughter, he lives in Los Angeles and is trying to make it as a voice-over artist. He and Madonna are in friendly contact. 

Paula Ciccone, 63, ‘rock of siblings’ that runs family vineyard  

A year younger than her famous sibling, if you saw Paula on the street it would be hard to conceive that this normal-looking 60-something is even vaguely connected to the global superstar, never mind one of her closest relatives.

Head winemaker at the family’s vineyard in Michigan, she is more commonly to be found in fleeces and jeans than corsets or leather. Intensely private — it’s unclear if she has a partner — Paula, who shared a childhood bedroom with Madonna, is at heart a bashful introvert.

Perched atop a hill on the picturesque Leelanau Peninsula, with panoramic views overlooking Michigan’s West Grand Traverse Bay, the Ciccone Vineyard and Winery is where Paula is most often found.

Established by their father Silvio ‘Tony’ Ciccone and his second wife Joan in 1995, it is set across 13 acres and has grown from a family-owned concern into a thriving business, winning awards and operating a popular tasting room. In 2004, when the business was ailing, Madonna stepped in with around £754,000.

It also has a highly regarded sideline as a wedding destination, with couples swapping vows in the vineyard’s quaint 100-year-old barn during the summer months.

‘[Paula is] an intrinsically shy person but she’s forced herself to be less shy because of all the responsibilities she has,’ Michael Schafer, a sommelier, certified wine and spirits expert and member of the board of the Michigan Wine Collaborative, previously told the Daily Mail.

When Madonna dropped out of college in 1978 to go to New York, Paula followed a few years later, staying with her big sister as she attempted to carve out her own showbusiness career.

With short platinum hair, Paula tried out modelling, and took part in an Oprah interview in 1986. She seemed to be uncomfortable with comparisons to her sister, commenting ‘fame changes family’.

While Madonna became an international superstar, Paula had behind-the-scenes jobs in special effects and set costume in film. Both careers fizzled out, however, and Paula moved back to Michigan where she became an artist and then took on a corporate job.

In 2011, Paula was made redundant and spent the summer at the family winery.

‘When I first got here, I just did the website. Then I inventoried all the rows of vineyards for each wine and tagged all of the posts. Once I was done with that, it was ‘What should I do next?’,’ she previously said.

‘I didn’t come up here to be the winemaker, but I thought what the heck, I’ll try it. My father started giving me responsibilities in the cellar, involving me more . . . I started keeping a notebook of all the different procedures.’

Studiously, she improved her knowledge of wine-making with classes at Michigan State University. When Paula’s father passed the baton to her, handing her control of the wine-making process, she began making wine in her own innovative style, and picking up awards.

Gone are the glamorous clothes and high maintenance lifestyle Paula once had as a model. Recently, she cut the ribbon on the winery’s new outdoor seating area, putting aside her dislike of public speaking to thank those involved.

‘I don’t think Paula ever thought she would end up running the family vineyard, but she’s done a great job with it and it’s clearly where she loves to be,’ says Schafer.

There have been bumps in her relationship with Madonna — in 2000, there was bad feeling when Madonna apparently refused to pay for Paula to travel to her second wedding in Scotland to Guy Ritchie. But she has been pictured with other family members at various Madonna tours through the years and the two sisters remain close.

‘It’s difficult having a famous sibling and constantly having to contend with someone who is regarded as being better known and more successful than you,’ Gary Johnson, a teacher for 53 years and curator of the Michigan Rock And Roll Legends Hall of Fame, previously said.

He has visited the vineyard several times and describes it as a ‘beautiful, peaceful place.’

‘The two sisters are very different characters but, just as Madonna is a successful businesswoman, so Paula has found her passion and become successful.’

There’s no doubt the two sisters do have something in common, in that they both have a keen business sense and strong work ethic.

‘Paula is a pioneering female winemaker who’s modernised the winery and brought it into the 21st century,’ says Michael Shafer. ‘She’s a talented businesswoman.’

Paula was born in 1959 in Bay City, Michigan. The two girls already had older brothers Anthony and Martin. Christopher and Melanie came along soon after.

Melanie Ciccone, 63, blissfully married and ‘closest sibling’ to Madonna

Madonna’s next sister, Melanie, has previously worked at the family vineyard.

And unlike Madge, who has dated a string of when three decades younger than her, Mel is the picture of marital bliss with a husband of 35 years.

Melanie’s passion, however, is to be found in her family. Happily married for more than three decades to the singer and songwriter Joe Henry — the couple have two children.

Like many 60-somethings, they are embracing a quieter life, recently moving to Maine after 30 years in Los Angeles. Here, they enjoy an idyllic existence, coming home to log fires after walks on beaches and in forests. A blissful retirement, it seems, beckons.

Down-to-earth Melanie is said to be Madonna’s closest sister and was the trusted sibling who held her hand when she gave birth to daughter Lourdes.

Often pictured hugging — ‘No one knows better than her what it’s like to survive our toxic and broken family from Michigan,’ the singer once said in tribute to Melanie — Madonna still calls her by her childhood nickname ‘Smells’.

Born in 1962, Melanie studied Spanish literature and language at Michigan State University and was a publicist for Brian Eno’s Opal Records. Her husband is an old friend of Madonna’s who met his future sister-in-law in 1975 when they were pupils at Rochester Adams High School in Michigan and members of the school’s Thespian Society.

‘[Madonna] was whip-smart and short on patience and, to tell the truth, she scared me more than a little but along with her sister Paula, her presence . . . opened a door through which I would pass and find my life utterly and for ever changed,’ Joe wrote in a 2015 birthday tribute to the pop princess.

The pair have collaborated musically on some of Madonna’s hits, but it’s the introduction to Melanie that Joe is most grateful for. ‘There is no other and never has been another,’ he said on the couple’s 35th wedding anniversary. ‘My marriage has been not only the light upon my path but the path itself. Lucky me.’

After devotedly raising her children and working in music, Melanie has built a second career as a fabric artist. Her talent at quilt making and love of textiles is said to have been inspired by her grandmothers and she has shown her works at the trendy alternative Roswell Space Gallery in Los Angeles.

What she calls ‘the simple materials of everyday life’ make up her creations.

One called Un-dress, featuring recycled plastic, bird netting, silk sari rags, thread and measuring tape, is priced at $5,500. Another called Kind Of Blue, made from fisherman’s rope, printed coffee bags, tulle, butcher paper and thread, is priced at $1,900.

It’s all rather spiritual, and delicate. One admiring review called Melanie’s embroidered works on tea-stained squares of linen ‘quiet little heartaches,’ while the 61-year-old says her work makes her feel purposeful and ‘connected to a deeper sense of herself’.

Christopher Ciccone, 62, former assistant who wrote a tell-all book about sister

Once Madonna’s closest sibling, Christopher began his career as her assistant, dresser, stylist and artistic director. 

Madonna and Christopher grew up together in Michigan and learned to dance together.

Then Christopher followed Madonna to New York, where she began her long journey to wealth and superstardom.

Christopher has been Madonna’s personal assistant and dresser, her interior decorator and artistic director of her show-stopping world tours.

But the siblings haven’t been without difficulties, with Christopher writing a tell-all book about his relationship with his sister –  where he claimed Guy Ritchie ‘drove at him’ and admitted the pair ‘never got along’.

He also claimed Madonna’s romance with the British director was ‘death knell for my relationship with her’.

He added that the Material Girl hitmaker was a ‘a middle-class girl who propagates the story that she landed in Times Square with just a pair of ballet shoes and $35 to her name,’ adding that is ‘pure mythology and the further she progresses, the more mythological her life story becomes’.  

Like his brothers, he has also struggled with alcohol and drug abuse – with Madonna paying for his stints in rehab. 

They fell out in 2003 when she dropped him as her tour director, the tell-all memoir, Life With My Sister Madonna, was published in 2008. 

In 2016, he married British hairdresser Ray Thacker.

In an interview with Evening Standard in 2012, he said: ‘(We are) on a perfectly personable level right now. As far as I’m concerned, we’re good. 

‘We are in contact with each other, although I haven’t seen her for a long time. We’re back to being a brother and sister. I don’t work for her, and it’s better this way.’

Additionally he stated his pride for his sister: ‘I couldn’t be more proud of her. She is a force to be reckoned with. Does she have Barbra Streisand’s voice? No.

‘Can she dance like Martha Graham? Probably not. But the combination of her abilities has made her great, and left a huge legacy for her, and through her, for me. So yeah, God bless her.’

Jennifer Ciccone, 64, works on family vineyard but wasn’t invited to sisters weddings

Art, and a love of children, again marks the life of the youngest Ciccone sister, Jennifer, who was born in 1967 and closely resembles her blonde mother, Joan.

Choosing a life away from the limelight, she first embarked on a career as an art teacher in Michigan elementary schools, with children aged five to 11. 

She married at the family vineyard in 2011, and today works there, and is regarded as an essential member of the management team, along with Paula and her 54-year-old brother Mario who manages the vineyard.

It has been claimed Jennifer wasn’t invited to Madonna’s two weddings and Madonna wasn’t invited to hers.

Yet fences have presumably been mended, since Jennifer has been pictured with other family members at various Madonna concerts over the years. Bespectacled and middle-aged, she too beams in pictures with all the happiness of a life well spent.

Indeed, looking at all the sisters’ faces — last seen side-by-side two years ago posing happily with their father Tony for his 90th birthday celebrations — it’s almost impossible not to wonder if they show what Madonna would look like if she, perhaps, had taken a more conventional path.

Mario Ciccone, 53, wild child turned around that now works family vineyard 

Like his older sisters, Madonna’s half-brother and the baby of the family, Mario has also worked at their father’s vineyard.

Perhaps the most private of the family, he previously worked at Madonna’s record company, Maverick. 

He married in July 2011 and has three children, one from a previous relationship. 

Like his brothers, hehad a wild period in his youth, taking cocaine and getting into fights. 

He battered a motorist and broke a police officer’s nose. Madonna paid his legal bills.