Madonna details being in a coma for two days after suffering sepsis and reveals the sweet meaning behind her stuffed octopus she sleeps with 'every night'

Madonna has detailed being in a coma for two days after suffering a bacterial infection and sepsis in a new video on Wednesday. 

The Queen of Pop, 67, was taken to the ICU and had to be intubated and put into a medically induced coma in 2023 as she battled for her life despite going into lung and kidney failure.

At the time, the singer was forced to pause her tour, but made a full recovery and returned to the stage a few months later.

Now, speaking to Vogue Italy in her home in London, Madonna introduced fans to Octavia, the purple stuffed octopus she sleeps with each night.

She said: 'This is my do-do. Her name is Octavia. I sleep with her every night. A couple of years ago I was really sick in the hospital. I was in a coma and this beautiful nurse that was taking care of me, her name was Olivia. 

'She was screaming at me every day, telling me I needed to get up, I needed to get out of the ICU, and she really gave me a lot of courage and hope.

'When I got out of the hospital and came home, my sister gave me this octopus. I looked at her and all I could think about was my nurse who took care of me.'

Madonna explained that Octavia is inspired by Olivia's name and did not specify which of her three sisters - Paula, 66, Melanie, 64, and Jennifer, 58 - gave her the stuffed animal.

'She's been with me ever since,' she said. 'The stuffing is starting to get kind of gross, but I love her. I adore her.'

In 2024, Madonna returned to the stage for her Celebration Tour show in Los Angeles and reflected on the 'near death' experience. 

She told the crowd: 'This show every night is not really so hard on me physically. It’s hard on me emotionally because I’m really telling you the story of my life.  

'My heart is on my sleeve. I’ve fallen off a lot of horses and broken a lot of bones… but nothing can stop me.'

Madonna went on to reveal the first word she allegedly said after waking from her 48 hour coma: 'No!'

'I’m pretty sure that was God saying to me, "Do you want to come? Want to come up with me?"' To which she replied, 'No!'

The Into The Groove singer revealed that one of the doctors who had cared for her during her health scare was in the audience that night, and she recalled how he coached her through her difficult recovery period after she was discharged from the hospital.

'I would call in every other day and ask [my doctor] why I didn’t have any energy, when was my energy going to come back? When was I going to feel like myself again? When can I go on tour again?' she recalled.

'All he would say is, "Go outside in the sun" … It was so hard for me to walk from my house to the backyard and sit in the sun. I know that sounds insane, but it was difficult,' she admitted. 'It’s a strange thing to finally not feel like I was in control, and that was my lesson… to let go.'

The singer (born Madonna Ciccone) credited her six kids with helping to get her back on her feet and in front of adoring audiences again.

'My children are what really helped me pull through because they worked so hard,' she shared. 'I didn’t want to let them down, so I just set a date. And that date became reality.'

It comes after Madonna admitted her daughter Lourdes Leon was 'very standoffish' to work with on their new song, as she finally addressed their rift.

The Queen of Pop opened up to Graham Norton on his BBC show Madonna & Graham and said Lourdes 'held onto a lot of resentment' with her over the years.

Madonna, who shares Lourdes with her ex Carlos Leon, wrote a song with her daughter for her new album Confessions II. 

Despite the tension between the mother and daughter duo, Madonna said writing a song together 'healed' their relationship. 

In the episode, which aired Friday night, Madonna explained: 'She approached me, she's been very reluctant to work with me. She doesn't want to be perceived as my daughter, taking advantage of her privilege.'

Graham asked: 'How does that feel? Was it like working with a professional or a proud mother?'

'It was kind of neither', she said. 'She's been very standoffish and working at her own pace, and I respect that deeply. She's a great songwriter and has a much better voice than I do.

'But then one day she came to me and said "You know what, I realise I've been holding onto something" and maybe it's a kind of I want to say anger, what's another word, maybe resentment? 

'At the end of the day, she didn't ask for this. She had been through her adolescence struggling with those feelings for a long time.

'So she came to me and said "Let's write a song together, I think it will be a very healing experience. You say exactly what you want to say and I will say exactly what I want to say".

'And I was like "Okay, you're on, let's do it, I was so happy". Her lyrics are beautiful.'

While Madonna and Lourdes are now close and often collaborate together, the pair have touched on their issues in past interviews.

In 2021, Lourdes called her mother a 'control freak' and admitted that she paid for her own college tuition and first apartment to escape her. 

'We don’t get any handouts in my family. Obviously, I grew up with extreme privilege. There’s no denying that,' she explained to Interview magazine.

'But I think my mom saw all these other kids of famous people, and she was like, "My kids are not going to be like this."

'Also, I feel like if your parents pay for things, then it gives them leverage over you. My mom is such a control freak, and she has controlled me my whole life. I needed to be completely independent from her as soon as I graduated high school.'

In a 2019 interview with Vogue, Madonna praised her 'insanely talented' eldest child but said that she lacked the same drive that had made her a household name.

Since branching out on her own, Lourdes has found work as a model, a celebrity socialite, and as an indie musician.

She recently appeared in her mother's Confessions II short film, in addition to co-writing a track from the album. 

Madonna also had a tumultuous relationship with her late brother Christopher, who passed away in 2024 at age 63 following a battle with cancer.

'My brother Christopher is gone. He was the closest human to me for so long,' she wrote on Instagram following his death.

'It's 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. In fact dance was a kind of superglue that held us together.'

Christopher worked as his sister's backup dancer, personal dresser and art director until their very public feud erupted in 2000.

He described himself as being the 'one person' who could take it when the singer screamed at him backstage and how he was the only one in her circle who knew the truth about her past, which she frequently 'mythologised'.

However, the sibling's relationship began to fracture in the late 1990s - as Christopher began to grow increasingly resentful over having given up his artistic dreams to support his sister's career.

In 2000, Christopher famously labelled Madonna an 'evil queen' in a leaked email, where he lamented 'giving up [his] f***ing life' for his sister's 'mediocre talent'.

'I guess I always thought that one day you'd see my worth and behave accordingly… but you never did… a little f***ing respect was all I ever wanted from you and you couldn't even manage that,' he raged.

Eight years later, he reportedly earned 'seven figures' to team up with author Wendy Leigh to co-write the tell-all book Life with My Sister Madonna.

In the 352-page book, Christopher made a cruel jibe about his sister's 'fat' midriff during The Virgin Tour back in 1985 and said Madonna would become a 'basket case' when being interviewed on TV.