Madonna Interview

20/20 Continues with Cynthia McFadden’s exclusive interview with Madonna.

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Madonna’s mother died when she was five. It is a painful subject. One she’s written about, one she has sung about. Thirteen years ago she even allowed cameras to follow her to her mother’s grave. But despite all of this it has been hard for her to talk candidly about it.
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Having a family has helped.

Madonna: My childhood was lonely and sad and….I just felt such an emptiness and such a feeling of lack and I don’t want to go back there ever. My husband and I are very different in that way. He’s always trying to recapture his youth and..and he did so many fun things that as a child that he still loves to do and I …I don’t….I am not interested in recapturing my childhood at all.

Interviewer: Her husband is director Guy Ritchie. She and Ritchie have been married 4 years. Their son Rocco lives with them at their homes in London, Los Angeles and New York as does Madonna’s daughter Lola.
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The whole family is in New York this week on tour with mom while she’s performing here.
Madonna family values. Let us talk about family values ok?

Madonna: Ok.

Interviewer: Alright. Is their a reigning philosophy in your household?

Madonna: Pick up your sh*#.

Interviewer: hahaha okay

Madonna: Everybody has to chip in. Even the children have to clean up their mess, clean up their rooms…manners, thank you, please, take your dishes to the sink…I mean…whatever, I mean…gratitude, being grateful…that is…that has to happen.

Interviewer: It couldn’t sound much more traditional. Is it?

Madonna: Is it traditional? If it’s traditional to be a decent human being then I am traditional.

Madonna: This is Lola…and this is Rocco.

Interviewer: Traditional and strict. For example, no tv is allowed for the children.
Are you at all of age you’re gonna sort of…they’re not going to know the cultural references of their friends.

Madonna: Oh, they know. They listen to the radio, they go to school. Th…you know..they hear things, they know what’s going on.
They know that..you know..Christina Aguilera and Brittney Spears have pierced belly buttons.

Interviewer: Do they know mommy kissed them?

Madonna: Uh, yeah…my daughter does, but she doesn’t think anything of it. She’s like whatever, I kiss girls all the time on the lips. I say hello, goodbye, whatever. That’s what she thinks of it.

Interviewer: No swearing at the Ritchie household.

Madonna: Oh well, we violate that one all the time.

Interviewer: I hear..you..it costs you a quarter though.

Madonna: It does, you know, but my children point it out…yeah, we get fined.

Interviewer: What is the one thing you have learned from having a daughter?

Madonna: Girls are so clever…hehehe…much cleverer than boys.

Interviewer: In a good way?

Madonna: Yeah, well they’re different, you know…they’re different. My love affair with my son is different than my love affair with my daughter.

Interviewer: How?

Madonna: Because its more of as..an..association with my daughter. I see myself in her and, you know. Sometimes I’m repulsed and sometimes I just want to put my arms around her...and just…you know what I mean? Like, come here. I know exactly what you’re going through right now. Umm…but my son is, you know. Well, you know, you have a son. It’s just ahhh its just..love...they can do no wrong. It’s terrible!

Interviewer: You said that your daughter Lola had sometimes taken it in the neck because she’s your daughter.

Madonna: Yeah.

Interviewer: Sometimes kids ostracize her some ki..times…

Madonna: They befriend her. But she knows it now. She understands it…I mean.. she has that savy that, you know..people are coming to her now. She can discern, you know.

Interviewer: Have you helped her? Have you given her some tips? Skills?

Madonna: Yeah, we talk about..I mean..Guy and…and I, we talk to her about fame all the time. I mean, we have discussions about paparazzi, why they take our pictures, what the point of it is. I mean, there’s websites devoted to my children…it’s sick!

Interviewer: Has she seen you in concert?

Madonna: Oh yeah, many times…she’s been..ah..you know, she knows the whole show inside and out

Interviewer: What do you think it’s like for her to see ten…fifteen…twenty thousand people going insane?

Madonna: Uh huh, I don’t know. I…I think she just thinks that’s mom, that’s her job. She’s just doing her job. I don’t think she pays that much attention to it. I mean, my daughter goes home and plays with her Polly Pockets. I mean, she’s not preoccupied with it at all.

Interviewer: I hear there are Barbie fashion shows at your house.

Madonna: There are. They’re a little bit disturbing..haha..yeah.

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Interviewer: When you watch her on stage, Barbie fashion shows seem a long way away.
Do you go to sleep at the end of this? I mean when you walk…

Madonna: It takes me hours to unwind…yeah.

Interviewer: And is Guy waiting with a little cup of tea at the door when you’re coming through?

Madonna: Fat chance! Guy’s waiting for me to come home and give him a massage…hahaha…ha...it’s true. He talks to me in the bathtub though. That’s my ritual. I come home, and I get in the bathtub and he talks to me.

Interviewer: He even calls her ma’ or Mrs.
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And, we learned, the rules that Madonna applies at work, don’t necessarily apply at home.
You have said many times that you will never apologize, now I take it that doesn’t apply at home.

Madonna: Of course not! That’s like…step number one to a successful marriage. Learn to apologize…haha, right?

Interviewer: It sounds like the rebel may be leaving old habits behind.
Is there anything good about getting older?

Madonna: Getting smarter.

Interviewer: Do you feel smarter?

Madonna: Oh yeah. Do I sound smarter?

Interviewer: Madonna at 45. Still a work in progress, but..yeah..it seems a smarter one!