Famed record producer William Orbit recently spoke to The Mirror about his falling out with Madonna after working together on her 2012 album MDNA.
“She dives into everything with such gusto,” Orbit, who also worked with the singer on her 1998 album Ray of Light, said. “I was drinking too much and I said stupid things. I don’t know where we stand.”
Related: Madonna’s longtime producer William Orbit opens up about their dramatic split after doing “MDNA”
Orbitz added that Madonna has never been one for sentimentality and hinted that it’s easy for her to drop people, even her own family members.
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“She’s not really somebody that looks back,” he said. “I could get a call tomorrow, you know?”
But Orbit isn’t the only person who’s seem his relationship with the Queen of Pop sour. Scroll down for five queer celebrities who have shared their own Madonna falling out stories…
Sandra Bernhard
Speaking to the “Hot Takes and Deep Dives” podcast in December 2021 about her former BFF:
I didn’t really like that level of visibility and having to work it constantly. We all, as performers, work it to a certain degree, but I’m a very improvisational person, on stage and in my life, and I don’t like being tied down in having to be a certain way for my image.
What I tried to impart in our friendship is, “I’m really your friend, I’m not just somebody that’s passing through.” And, I guess, for a while, we had a real friendship. But it’s hard for somebody like her. She doesn’t really want somebody around who reflects too much of who she is. Therefore, her relationships just don’t last.
Related: Sandra Bernhard just got brutally honest about her former BFF Madonna
Pedro Almodóvar
In a personal essay published by Indiewire in April 2020 about appearing in Madonna’s 1991 documentary Truth or Dare:
I went out with her the days she spent in Madrid. I organized a big flamenco party for her… She had made it very clear to me that, aside from myself, she was only interested in meeting one other guest, Antonio Banderas. I promised her that Antonio would be there, but I didn’t tell her that I couldn’t invite him without his then-wife, Ana Leza, a huge fan of the singer.
Madonna did not pay attention to anybody else. Ana dared to get close to our table and told the divine blonde sarcastically, “I see you like my husband, it doesn’t surprise me, all women like him, but I don’t mind because I am very modern.” To which Madonna replied: “Get lost.”
Madonna treated us like simpletons and I had to say it one day. She didn’t ask for permission to use our images, and she even dubbed me, because my English mustn’t have been that good.
Related: Almodóvar spills major tea on ‘Truth Or Dare’ scene with Madonna: “She treated us like simpletons”
Rufus Wainwright
Speaking to Attitude in June 2022 about why Madonna doesn’t like him:
Look, I’m fascinated by Madonna, as is the universe. I’ve had evenings with her. Nothing extensive, but little run-ins with her over the years, and she’s never been particularly… I’m on a weird part of her radar! I’m not quite a target, but I’m not a refuge either. Whatever.
We’ve never had a great thing. But I admire her tenacity, and some of her songs are great. But she’s been quite mean to me a couple of times. But it’s like, join the list.
With her, as with certain other celebrities of that magnitude, they have a real tunnel vision. At intimate things she just doesn’t acknowledge me, doesn’t really see me.
… There was one little incident where she may have held something against me slightly, because I worked with someone who used to work for her, and they ended up leaving her: some political thing.
I was ignored by her at a very small event where there were only a few people. It was just bizarre, and very rude in general. I’m not like that. You acknowledge everybody in the room, a little bit.
Related: Rufus Wainwright just spilled the tea about Madonna: “She’s been quite mean to me a couple of times”
Rupert Everett
Speaking to Stellar magazine in March 2020 about their falling out after he wrote about her in his 2006 memoir “Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins”:
We don’t see each other anymore. I do miss it. She’s an amazing person and that part of my life was incredibly exciting. To be doing a film with her and to be a friend of hers and to have been such a fan of hers.
She really didn’t like it (the book). I think it is very affectionate, and certainly with her I was very careful to only write things that were. But she felt it was an infringement of privacy.
Goddesses like that are obsessed with their public image and want to control everything about it, so if anyone is to tell anyone anything about her it’s got to be her.
Elephants don’t forget… She doesn’t trust me any more.
Related: Dear Rupert Everett: We love you, but your movie with Madonna sucked.
Christopher Ciccone
Speaking to The Sun in August 2017 about what happened after he wrote the 2008 tell-all book Life with My Sister Madonna:
When I got back to L.A. my 500 acquaintances suddenly turned out to be four friends. She’s quite powerful in Los Angeles, in the industry. I was working in the industry doing music videos and tours and it was difficult to get work, if not impossible. Madonna likes to hold grudges.
I could have written that book, the book about how horrifying she is or can be, but I didn’t write that book. I was just looking for a little recognition for the work I’ve done for 20 years with her, that it wasn’t one person.
Kangol2
I’m a fan of Madonna’s but I don’t doubt a single one of these accounts. The people I know who’ve had contact with her have said she could be charming and imperious in the same encounter. Pedro Almodóvar’s recollection about Madonna snapping at Antonio Banderas’s wife made me laugh out loud, too.
bachy
When clawing your way to the top, if you don’t have haters, you ain’t doin’ it right.
And that goes for anyone with any form of ambition – even the effort to hold down a regular job. The more successful you are, the more there will be people who hate you… for something. It’s one of the reasons I am suspicious of the Twitter mob when they expect people in prominent cultural positions to be “perfect” according to everyone who has ever worked for them. LOL! Dream on.
Mattster
Not everyone with drive and ambition, even if they are successful, acts like an asshole.
These stories don’t strike me as coming from a bunch of jealous haters. This whole “people gonna hate me ‘cuz I’m successful” sounds like an excuse for people to act like assholes. And interestingly, few of those people have anywhere near that level of success.
bachy
@Mattster: name one person you admire who has achieved prominence in politics, music, art, entertainment – any field whatsoever – who doesn’t endure a sh|t tonne of haters.
Pete Buttigieg? Oops, no, cross off that one. Hillary Clinton? fuggedaboutit. Elton John? Sorry, sweetie. Lil Nas X? Um, no. Andy Warhol? Ha! Not quite. Ellen Degeneres? Annihilated some time ago. Elliot Page? Hahaha. For sure.
It’s an exercise in futility. Wake up and smell the real world. The more successful you are, the more jealousy and hate will come your way. And you don’t even need to be an asshole!
Dapper Dan
@bachy while that level of success will always bring haters, that’s true. But there a lot of successful people who don’t have other successful people essentially saying “I love her but she’s a horrible human being”.
bachy
@Dapper D: Mmmmm…okay. If that’s where you draw the line – someone who is “successful” and “loves” you but insists “you’re a horrible human being” – then hmmm, maybe you are.
But I’ve known a lotta haters in my time, baby, and as the saying goes: haters gonna hate. Maybe they’re motivated by “genuine concern” (as indicated above). But let’s not be too quick to overlook resentment, envy, competitiveness and sometimes the petty pleasure of watching someone eat a little dirt. And the really good ones know just how to twist the knife when they stab you in the back.
Lucky you. Haven’t encountered one. Yet.
kish
Really stretching it by including her brother in this list.
johncp56
I know all in all business is just that it is her company, but a family that you are close to like her brother Christopher Ciccone, would it have helped if he asked her can I write this? but to write him off, I guess she found a better gay BFF, sad,
HistoyMaker
dude, Christopher got addicted to meth for years, refused to get help, later wrote a tell all book about her and all her celebrity friends for money. He is said to be recovered now. You forgot to mention that part.
HistoyMaker
If you don’t know the story, don’t write it! Typical, one-sided article with important details missing.
1-Sandra Bernard; Ingrid Casares has a 30-year-old friendship with Madonna. She was introduced to her by SB, then her lover. As Ingrid recently called Sandra out for years of lying, their friendship ended because Sandra Bernard had a psychotic breakdown when she was not included in her SEX Book. (Shortly later SB posed for Playboy). Madonna is the real reason she became famous. SB can’t sit through an interview without mentioning Madonna because “Without you,
i am nothing”.
2-I’ve the OUT magazine when Pedro Almodovar was first featured on cover in an American Magazine in 96 because he was featured in Madonna’s movie. None really knew him nor understood him. I have it because I was in it too. She contributed a lot to his fame and fortune. And made Antonio Banderas famous worldwide. In the interview, he was talking about how wonderful, exciting it was to be in it. that they were friends, that he wanted to make a movie with her, etc. Now he says otherwise because of all the drugs he had been on.
3-Rupert Everette became famous after he was close friends with Madonna. He used his friendship and wrote tell-all book without even informing her. He admitted he hurt her feelings and she never talked to him since. Would you? Why not mention that? 4-Rufus; Noone gives a damn to this arrogant one. He’s been nasty to a lot of people for years and also previously said terrible things about Miley Cyrus and Madonna. Later, he expected roses?
5-Christoper; How is a celebrity? Right, for being Madonna’s brother. Why not mention they had a fall out because he got addicted to meth heavily. Madonna just had a baby. He was not safe, not himself. Then backstabbed his sister and wrote a tell all book completely about her. When he had no money left.
6-William Orbit, yeah, another one Madonna made famous worldwide. He also admitted he got addicted to cocaine and was an alcoholic until he recently recovered. He said he was in a bad shape and said terrible things about their work on MDNA. He later apologized. I got that magazine as well. When the album came out, during promotion, he said all the good songs were given to popular artists like Chris Brown and Madonna ended with the shitty ones. He humiliated himself, her, and other producers on the same album. He also admitted he couldn’t work with anyone because of his addictions in recent years and would like to work with her again. He said that Madonna’s energy is too high, she works nonstop but he didn’t have that energy and THAT was stressful.
Writing a story about a coin? Mention both sides.
bachy
Word.
DBMC
SHE made Antonio Banderas famous worldwide?
dbmcvey
I’m sure Madonna is not pleasant to be around, and I would avoid meeting her. I don’t think people should excuse terrible behavior. She’s probably terrible to work with, but while she’s probably rude, I’m not sure she’s ever abusive. I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, but then, I don’t have to work with her.
Isobel
Why does Queerty hate Madonna so much? They only print negative “articles” about her. Why? I think she’s so great and has been such a strong supporter of the gay community since day 1. I am obsessed and happy that she’s still here making people feel uncomfortable.