Today, Madonna is celebrating her 58th birthday along with her newest magazine cover. In a special edition collector’s issue of Love Magazine, titled LOVE 16.5, Mert Alas photographed the Queen of Pop with minimal makeup, no hair styling and a black hoodie. Sucking her thumb and laying in bed, the birthday girl looks more relateable than ever.
The late night photo shoot manifested into a ten page spread featuring Madonna and her teenage son, Rocco. The two agreed to do the shoot at the request of long-time family friend and photographer, Mert Alas. In her interview with the magazine, Madonna opens up about her relationship with her son, fame and social media.
“I was already famous before social media, so for me fame isn’t the burden. Fame is the manifestation or the by-product of my work, and that was two decades before social media. Now to me the burden is people are more focused on fame than actually doing the work or being an artist. Now it’s easy to become famous. What isn’t easy is to develop and grow as an artist without being distracted or consumed with fame,” she says.
Amid a messy custody battle between Madonna and Rocco’s father, Guy Ritchie, the mother-son duo seemed to have settled their differences to reunite for this special edition spread.
Find out more about the issue, here.
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