Madonna, a pop singer superstar of the 1980s and 90s, was set to soon begin a new global tour next month but those plans have now changed.
That tour has now been postponed after Madonna was discovered "unresponsive" over the weekend and was rushed to a nearby hospital and placed in an intensive care unit, according to a Wednesday report from the New York Post's Page Six.
The 64-year-old superstar singer from decades past was said to have even been intubated for at least one night while in the ICU, though she is now said to be "alert and recovering."
That grim news was shared publicly on Wednesday by Madonna's longtime manager, Guy Oseary, who said in a social media post that his client "developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several-day stay in the ICU."
She is now "out of the ICU," per unnamed sources, but the manager noted that "She is still under medical care. A full recovery is expected."
Oseary went on to announce the indefinite postponement of the impending global "Celebration" tour -- which may well be Madonna's last tour ever -- which was scheduled to kick off on July 15 in Vancouver, Canada, and end in January 2024 with a total of 84 shows in which she would perform a variety of her greatest hits from her four-decades long career.
"We will share more details with you as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows," the manager added.
According to a separate report from Page Six, it was Madonna's "strenuously rehearsing" and "putting in 12-hour days" in preparation for the impending "Celebration" tour that may have been a contributing factor in her being hospitalized with a seemingly serious bacterial infection.
The grueling and near-daily rehearsals were conducted at the largely unused Nassau Coliseum on New York's Long Island -- formerly the home of the NHL's New York Islanders -- but that venue had a private event over the weekend and therefore only learned of Madonna's illness and the postponement of the tour, and presumably the rehearsals, via media reports.
Page Six learned from an unnamed source that "Madonna doesn’t want to cancel her tour. She was having a blast in rehearsals and wants to get back to it when she’s ready." That source added that the singer was "game" to soon get back to work to finish preparations for the tour but that her "team doesn't want to push her."
The U.S. Sun seemed to confirm the jist of that Page Six report by noting that Madonna looked "frail and exhausted" and sickly with "heavy eyes" and a vacant stare in several pictures that she had posted to Instagram just a few days prior to her hospitalization.
Meanwhile, though Madonna is said to now be doing better and recovering from her illness, the Daily Mail reported that an unnamed relative said, "For the past couple of days, no one really knew which direction this was going to turn, and her family was preparing for the worst," and noted, "That is why it was kept a secret since Saturday. Everyone believed that we may lose her and that has been the reality of the situation."
It is unclear which of Madonna's relatives spoke with the outlet, as she has three sisters and three brothers as well as six children who range in age from 10 to 26. Reports indicate that her eldest child, daughter Lourdes, had been by her mother's side at the hospital throughout the entire ordeal.
"She has not been living as healthy a life as she should be for her age, and she has been wearing herself thin over the past couple of months. She thinks that she is still young when, in fact, she is not. She also believes that she is invincible," the unknown family member added. "Everything, including this tour, is taking a backseat right now and no one is allowed to even mention anything work-related around her because she will lose her s--t. She will put her career and her fame before her health until the day she is dead."
