”Love, children and work. Lucky me”
This isn’t a bad way to spend an afternoon skimming across the blue Venice lagoon in a motor launch, the bright sun reflecting on the waves, the majestic buildings shimmering in the heat…
Oh, and having Madonna – in a stunning Dolce & Gabbana little black dress – waving a black silk fan to keep me cool.
I soon discover she’s in a reflective mood – and willing to be unusually candid in what, these days, is a rare interview.
She tells me that everything she has now – a family, a career and a young lover – has come at a price.
I ask her if it really is possible to have all three.
“You can – but what you can’t then expect is a good night’s sleep,” she says with a wry smile.
“I have all three; love, children and work. Lucky me.”
This is the real Madonna. The Madonna that few people see. The Madonna who keeps her thoughts fiercely private – until we find ourselves sharing an airless cabin on the Grand Canal at the Venice Film Festival.
Madonna, it seems, was so afraid of being lonely in middle age that it took two divorces and a string of break-ups before she learnt the art of compromising with the men in her life.
“The older I get, the more I understand about the nature of relationships and how to have a successful one,” she says.
“The more I realise that it has to do with compromise and sacrifice and that’s just the way it goes. And unless you want to be alone for the rest of your life you have to realise that.”
Read the few interview on the online website of the Daily Mail.