Madonna has postponed her tour after becoming ill and staying in intensive care for several days.
A statement posted on Instagram by the US pop icon’s manager, Guy Oseary, said: “On Saturday June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which lead to a several day stay in the ICU.
“Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care. A full recovery is expected.
“At this time we will need to pause all commitments, which includes the tour.
“We will share more details with you soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows.”
The 64-year-old hitmaker was due to kick off the North America leg of her “Celebration” world tour, to mark the 40th anniversary of her musical career, in Vancouver, Canada, on 15 July.
Performances also include two shows at Madison Square Garden in New York in August, as well as Los Angeles, Miami, Las Vegas and Chicago.
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Her entourage was later scheduled to travel to London for four sold-out shows at the O2 Arena from 14 October to begin the European leg of the tour – which also includes stops in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands.
The Material Girl is then booked for two more dates at the O2 Arena in December.
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She called on fans to help her choose which songs make the Celebration Tour setlist, asking on social media: “What song would you like to dance to at my show?”
In a statement sent to Sky News, she said: “I am excited to explore as many songs as possible in hopes to give my fans the show they have been waiting for.”
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Just one week ago Madonna shared a series of images which appeared to show her in rehearsals with her 18.9m Instagram followers, captioned “The Calm Before The Storm”.
Mr Oseary’s Instagram post was liked by thousands of fans within minutes of him sharing the update on Wednesday evening.
Among the messages of support, one wrote: “The tour can wait. We aren’t going anywhere! Health before time. We love you.”
Another posted: “Wishing the best for Madonna and a speedy recovery! We will always be here for her when she’s ready to go!”.
American events promoter, Live Nation, has since confirmed the tour had been postponed, citing Mr Oseary’s Instagram post.
Image: The Material Girl is due to travel to London for four sell-out shows at the O2 Arena in October
She told fans at the time: “Doing my show every night brings me so much joy and to cancel is a kind of punishment for me but the pain I’m in right now is overwhelming and I must rest and follow doctors’ orders so I can come back stronger and better and continue the Madame X journey with all of you.”
Image: Thousands of fans have wished the star well, insisting ‘the tour can wait’ Pic: Ricardo Gomes
It is “pretty surreal”, Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon admits, finding herself at the top of The New York Times bestsellers list.
When I meet the actress alongside her co-writer, best-selling author Harlan Coben, overnight the pair have learned that their thriller is now at number one.
He jokes: “I was texting her last night and saying you’ll now have to call yourself number one bestselling novelist, forget about Oscar winner!”
Image: Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben told Katie Spencer about their novel Gone Before Goodbye
As one of the most successful authors in the world, Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground.
Not content with running a hugely successful production company responsible for a string of hits, as well as one of the most successful book clubs in the world, she explains she felt compelled to give writing a try.
“People want you to stay in your lane… as a creative person I think it’s impossible to just choose one kind of life.
“Creativity is infinite and who I was as a creative person when I was 20 is very different from the person I am now at 49.”
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Gone Before Goodbye, a thriller about a talented surgeon who finds herself caught up in a deadly conspiracy, is the result of Witherspoon daring to put her head above the parapet.
Image: Witherspoon says she felt compelled to give writing a try
Coben admits he was “a little wary” at first.
“I don’t co-write novels but when she made the pitch and started talking about it, I was like ‘dang that’s good, we can do something with that’.”
While countless celebrities work with ghostwriters, Coben says: “I said to her from day one ‘it’s only going to be you and me in here… no third person in here, I don’t do that’. So every word you [read] comes from Reese and me.”
Image: Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground
Witherspoon explains: “He was like ‘if we’re going to do this, it’s going to have to be at a really high level because people going to expect a lot, so our bar was really high.”
“I said to her, in the beginning, novels are like a sausage,” Coben laughs. “You might like the final taste, but you don’t want to see how it was made and Reese got to see the full sausage getting made here.”
When it came to writing, Coben says they “fell into a rhythm right away”, working together in three-hour stints, “back and forth with a yellow legal pad – what about this? What about that?”
Image: Coben says they ‘fell into a rhythm right away’
Witherspoon says it “feels really deeply personal” to have their work now in print.
“Usually, as an actor, I walk into other people’s worlds and it’s already set up… but this was creating the whole world with Harlan and just from beginning to end feels very personal.”
While the story seems an obvious fit for being adapted to the screen, perhaps with a certain blonde actress in the leading role, Coben says that was never their intention.
“The biggest, biggest mistake novelists make when you write a book is to say ‘this would make a really great movie’. A book is a book, a movie is a movie, and we both focused on wanting this to be just a great reading experience.”
Given that their collaboration is already selling in big numbers, will the pair team up again to write a second?
Witherspoon says: “Let’s just see what people think of this one first.”
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Associate professor of neurology Dr Laura Stein told Sky’s US partner NBC News: ” The most well-described risk factors include a predisposition [family history of aneurysm], high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and inflammation.”
She went on to explain that most fatal ruptured aneurysms are in the brain, killing about one in three patients.
“When it’s a blood vessel that’s in the head and it bleeds, there’s a much higher risk of having a very bad problem just because the brain is enclosed in a fixed space,” Dr Stein added.
Low-risk aneurysms are monitored by doctors for growth or abnormalities, and there are a series of potential treatment options for those considered dangerous.
Elsewhere in The Kardashians clip, Kim admitted that her ex-husband Kanye West will be in her life “no matter what” because of the four kids they share together.