Madonna‘s younger brother Christopher Ciccone, an artist, dancer and interior designer, has died. He was 63.

After reports that Ciccone died on Friday in Michigan following a cancer diagnosis, his 7x Grammy winning sister shared a heartfelt statement on social media, mourning his loss.

“My brother Christopher is gone. He was the closest human to me for so long,” she captioned the post in part. “Its hard to explain our bond. But it grew out of an understanding that we were different and society was going to give us a hard time for not following the status quo. We took each other’s hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood.”

Ciccone grew up dancing and joined the Montreal company La Groupe de La Place Royal before serving as a backup dancer for Madonna early in her career, appearing in the video for her 1983 track ‘Lucky Star’. He...