Madonna: I’m being punished for turning 60

The star says it is part of a pattern she has suffered during her career, with people questioning her looks, singing and talent.

MADONNA says she is being “punished for turning 60” – and that it is part of a pattern of vilification she has faced throughout her career.

The singer, who releases her 14th album – Madame X – next month, said: “People have always been trying to silence me for one reason or another.

“Whether it’s that I’m not pretty enough, I don’t sing well enough, I’m not talented enough, I’m not married enough.”

Now, she adds, it is “that I’m not young enough”.

“I’m fighting ageism – now I’m being punished for turning 60,” she told British Vogue magazine.

Madonna has enjoyed incredible career longevity – it is 35 years since Like A Virgin topped US charts and reached number three in the UK

Despite this, she says it can be lonely because there are “no living role models for me”.

“Nobody does what I do,” she said. “And that’s kind of scary.”

Expanding on the issue, she added: “I can look back at women who I think were great and amazing – freedom fighters, like Simone de Beauvoir or Angela Davis – but they didn’t have kids.

“Being a single parent of six children, I continue to be creative and be an artist and be politically active, to have a voice, to do all the things that I do. So I mean, there isn’t anybody in my position.”

Madonna described her daughter Lourdes as “insanely talented”.

“I’m green with envy because she’s incredible at everything she does – she’s an incredible dancer, she’s a great actress, she plays the piano beautifully, she’s way better than me in the talent department.”

But Madonna said the 22-year-old “doesn’t have the same drive” as her, adding: “I feel social media plagues her and makes her feel like, ‘People are going to give me things because I’m her daughter.'”

In the interview, Madonna said she has not let her son David have a phone at the age of 13, like she did with his older siblings.

“I made a mistake when I gave my older children phones when they were 13,” she said.

“It ended my relationship with them, really. Not completely, but it became a very, very big part of their lives. They became too inundated with imagery and started to compare themselves to other people, and that’s really bad for self-growth.” – bbc.com