Madonna Confronts Stepmother and Ex Sean Penn in New Album Confessions II

Madonna is addressing personal grievances in her upcoming album Confessions II, set for release on July 3, 2026. At age 67, she uses her music to settle scores with two significant figures from her past: her ex-husband Sean Penn and her late stepmother Joan Ciccone. Madonna lost her biological mother to cancer at age five, after which her father Silvio married their housekeeper Joan, who became Madonna's stepmother. Their relationship was strained, a tension Madonna explores in the song "Betrayal," where she accuses Joan of betrayal and states, "You will never take my mother's place." Joan passed away in 2024, and Madonna did not attend her funeral.

Madonna also reflects on her turbulent marriage to actor Sean Penn, to whom she was married from 1985 to 1989. In the track "Bizarre," she references a "blue-eyed movie star" widely interpreted as Penn, criticizing him for feeling threatened by her fame and unwilling to "share the red carpet." The song mentions the 1968 Shelby GT500 convertible she gifted him and his reckless driving conviction in 1987. Despite the bitterness expressed in the song, Madonna has spoken warmly of Penn in the past, notably praising his humanitarian work in Haiti in 2016.

In "Bizarre," Madonna sings about the complexities of love and resentment, acknowledging that Penn harbors grudges against her and that their relationship was fraught with contradictions. The album's candid lyrics reveal Madonna's ongoing process of reckoning with her past relationships through her music.