Tragic Life Details About Madonna's Daughter Lourdes Leon

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Lourdes Leon has grown up with one of the best-known women in the world as her mother, but that's not to say she's always had an easy ride. On the contrary, from strict rules to nasty social media comments, she's been pretty open about some of the downsides of being Madonna's daughter. 

As many know, Leon is the eldest of Madonna's many children. As such, the singer has referred to her on Instagram as "my first true love." However, that didn't mean Leon ran the roost growing up — she actually had a pretty strict upbringing. So much so, in fact, that Leon told Interview in 2021 that she'd fled the nest as soon as she could. "My mom is such a control freak, and she has controlled me my whole life," she said. No exaggeration, there: one of the strange rules Madonna made her follow was that untidiness meant having her clothing confiscated. As the singer told Newsweek back in 2005, "She wears the same outfit every day to school until she learns her lesson" (via USA Today). Yikes. It's no surprise, then, that Leon told Interview, "I needed to be completely independent from her as soon as I graduated high school." That meant Leon paid for her own college tuition (though there's a possibility that would have happened anyway, as Madonna is pretty strict about sharing her fortune with her kids).

Now that she's older, Leon kind of understands where her mom was coming from. "I think my mom saw all these other kids of famous people, and she was like, 'My kids are not going to be like this,'" she mused. These days, Madonna can't confiscate Leon's clothes — but she does still lock her own closet to prevent her daughter from "borrowing" anything. 

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While Lourdes Leon found Madonna strict growing up, Madonna herself wasn't convinced she'd been strict enough. In fact, back in 2012 when a then-15-year-old Leon was papped smoking, the singer made it clear that she thought she should crack down even harder. Speaking to "Rock Center," the mom mused, "I don't think I'm as tough as I should be ... I think I need to be maybe tougher" (via Us Weekly). 

It's possible she succeeded in that, as New York Post sources claimed the singer had actually demoted her daughter while they were on the MDNA tour together in 2012. According to those insiders, Leon was initially meant to serve as one of her mother's backup dancers on the tour. After a fight between the mother-daughter duo made things tense between Madonna and Leon, she ended up in wardrobe, instead, and even joked about it on her now-defunct blog, writing about being tasked with folding underwear and helping dancers get into new costumes in between sets. After the smoking incident, though, even that was revoked, and sources said she was told to leave the tour altogether. 

It is possible that Leon's exit from the MDNA tour had more to do with timing than punishment. After all, she'd written in her blog that working on the tour had been her summer job, and the tour continued until late December. Whether she was kicked off the tour or not, Madonna made no secret of her frustration with her teenage daughter's habit. "I don't approve of anyone smoking cigarettes — most of all my daughter," she'd told "Rock Center" (via Us Weekly). Understandable!

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While we might never know if Madonna kicked her daughter off the MDNA tour, one thing there's no question about is that Lourdes Leon gets a lot of hate based on who her mother is.

Leon opened up about the kind of criticism she receives on social media back in a 2021 interview with Paper. "So many people like to hate on my mom, so it's obviously like I'm the spawn, I'm the oldest daughter, I'm going to see the tail end of that hate. So anything I do negative, it's, 'Like mother, like daughter,'" she complained. She also added that that particular criticism was unimaginative, at best. "Y'all are so unoriginal," she said. Original or not, Leon explained that she was pretty cautious around social media in general, though she tried not to take it too seriously. 

Having said that, Leon has also made it pretty clear in the past that she has no qualms calling haters out when she feels like they're taking it too far. As she explained to Interview, people were often surprised when she responded to taunts, but she was fine with that. "It's like, 'B***h, don't talk about my mom if you don't want me to talk about your mom. You want to call my mom a w***e? Okay, your mom is a w***e.' If you feel like you have the right to comment on my mother, then I'm going to do the same to you," she warned. Not quite rising above, but we're not shocked the aspiring singer has taken nasty commenters to task.

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Unfortunately, Lourdes Leon hasn't only faced criticism on social media. She's also been under a microscope her entire life — and she's admitted to it taking a toll, at times. 

In her conversation with Interview, Leon explained that coming into the spotlight as a model (unsurprising in itself, since Madonna's daughter has grown up to be gorgeous), wasn't exactly easy. Without going into a ton of detail, she revealed, "It's kind of a nightmare." However, she went on to muse that her penchant for privacy likely helped a lot in keeping her grounded. "I've been judged from a young age, but I think that privacy is the reason why I was able to keep my wits about me and not find myself in a mental asylum," she said. 

Sure enough, while Leon shares pictures and videos of her life via Instagram on occasion, she very rarely gives out any real details. In fact, even when it comes to her past relationship with Timothée Chalamet, both she and the actor have kept it to themselves, for the most part. Speaking to Vanity Fair, Leon's only comment on her former beau was, "I respect him a lot, we were a little item. My first boyfriend." No juicy tell-alls, here!

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It's no secret that Lourdes Leon has worn some scandalous outfits over the years. Unfortunately, that's translated to a whole lot of chatter about the model-turned-singer — and as her friend Raul Lopez, who interviewed her for Paper, pointed out, the fact that she keeps such a low profile when it comes to her private life hasn't exactly helped. 

Responding to Lopez's note that Leon was often hypersexualized, Leon explained, "First of all, I would say that showing skin does not equate with h** activity, okay?" She went on to add, "I think it's a bit ridiculous that people are still living in this world where we're equating showing skin with wanting attention ... Let her wear what she wants." Leon also explained that hypersexuality wasn't something people should be judged for. That particular detail was important, as she continued to say she didn't judge herself, either. 

Furthermore, Leon said that much of the outrage toward her and her 'fits seemed to stem from other people wanting to shame her for sexualizing herself, rather than being sexualized by someone else, which she saw as pretty inevitable. "It's only okay if it's other people telling you to be sexual. It's not okay for you to decide for yourself," she mused. We're here for Leon's choice to express herself the way she wants to, unapologetically!

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With Lourdes Leon leaving Madonna's house the first chance she got, it stands to reason that she's determined to be as independent from her mom as possible by carving her own path. However, she's the first to admit that she's struggled to stay focused on her goals to make an impact (as she told Vanity Fair, all she really wants is to encourage others to follow their dreams), and has found herself getting caught up in prioritizing money more. Luckily, though, she's had her mom to remind her to focus on the real priorities. 

Speaking of her desire to be more financially successful, Leon shared with Interview that her mother had told her, "'Remember, this s*** is not real. It's not about money or your face or how hot you look. It's about what you're bringing into the world and what you're going to leave behind.'" It bears mentioning that at that point, Leon had already started thinking about ways she could use dance (which is what Leon studied in college, after transferring out of the University of Michigan) to change the modeling profession. 

While Leon wasn't sure what exactly her path would entail, she did share with Paper that her chief goal was to keep doing what she was good at. "I just know what I love to do and I know that if I keep doing that then I'll get somewhere eventually," she said. Here's hoping she does just that, while staying focused on what really matters.