Pop diva Madonna may be prosperous and eminent, but one of her brothers says he's living rough and bankrupt in a small town in Michigan after losing his job at the family winery.
My family turned their back on me, on the whole when I was having a tough time," Anthony Ciccone told the Michigan Messenger, an online news website.
"You imagine I haven't replied this type of question a bazillion times? Why my sister is a multi-bazillionarie, and I'm homeless on the street?" added Ciccone, 55, who said he sleeps under a overpass in Traverse City.
"Never say never. This could take place to anybody," he said. "I don't have any takings, I've got to go collect bottles and cans, do unusual jobs."
The Michigan Messenger exposed Ciccone's dilemma as part of a broader aspect on how churches in Traverse City, a town of 15,000 on Lake Michigan renowned for tourism and cherries, open their doors to the homeless in winter.
He said he has been sleeping rough since he lost his job a year and a half ago at a close by winery possessed by Tony Ciccone, whose six children by his first marriage include him and Madonna.
The conditions of his job loss were unidentified.
There were no remarks from Madonna, whose net income in October 2010 was likely at $58 million by business magazine Forbes. Her long list of hits contained "Material Girl."
