Madonna Reveals How She Contracted Sepsis and Was ‘Unconscious for 4 Days’ During Hospitalization for Bacterial Infection

The pop icon opened up about the 2023 major health scare in her first-ever podcast appearance with Jay Shetty

Madonna on the ‘On Purpose with Jay Shetty’ podcast. 

Madonna is sharing more details about her 2023 hospitalization while she was on tour.

In a new interview with Jay Shetty for the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast on Monday, Sept.

29, the Queen of Pop, 67, revealed how she overcame sepsis and was unconscious for four days amid her hospitalization for a “serious bacterial infection” — and shared how her practice of Kabbalah aided in her recovery.

Madonna was hospitalized June 2023, and in December of that year she told a Brooklyn, New York, crowd that she was in “an induced coma for 48 hours” during the ordeal.

Reflecting on that period of her life, the singer told Shetty, 38, “There’s no way we’re going to escape suffering.

Even if we grow up with wealth and privilege and you know, didn’t grow up in a small room, our challenges and our suffering is going to come to us in a different way.”

“I was rehearsing for my tour, and I got a bacterial infection,” she recalled.

“One minute I was alive and dancing around and the next minute I was in the ICU unit of a hospital and I woke up from being unconscious for four days.”

Sepsis is defined as “a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“The infection-fighting processes turn on the body, causing the organs to work poorly …

Sepsis may progress to septic shock.

This is a dramatic drop in blood pressure that can damage the lungs, kidneys, liver and other organs.

When the damage is severe, it can lead to death.”.

“I got out of the hospital, they took me off the ventilator, I started to breathe on my own, and I had something, it’s called sepsis, and it can kill you,” Madonna continued, before detailing how a lengthy recovery was soon to follow her ordeal.

“I always saw myself as superwoman,” she said.

“So, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to kick this.

I’m going to be good.

I’m getting back into rehearsals.’ “.

However, Madonna said she had “no strength,” “no energy,” “couldn’t get out of bed” and “didn’t know when it was going to end.”

She then went on to describe how her Kabbalah teacher’s message of “radical acceptance” impacted her healing process.

“I used to talk to my teacher all the time and he was like, ‘The sooner you accept what’s happening to you and that you don’t know when it’s going to end, the sooner it’s going to end,’ ” she revealed of her mindset during her recovery.

“That made so much sense to me.

And of course it did.”.

Madonna on the ‘On Purpose with Jay Shetty’ podcast.
“But I mean, I’ve heard some people never recover from it completely, never have their like full of health again,” Madonna continued.

“So again, it’s the same idea, same concept as sitting around feeling sorry for yourself, ‘Oh well, woe is me or poor me.’ I will not accept it.

Well, then you’re just going to be swimming in suffering.”.

In a July 2024 Instagram post to mark a year since she left the hospital, Madonna reflected on her “miraculous recovery” as she celebrated the Fourth of July.

“A year ago today, I had just come home from the hospital after surviving a life threatening illness, I could barely stand in my backyard holding one sparkler,” Madonna wrote.

“I made a miraculous recovery and had an amazing year.

Thank you God.

Life is beautiful! ♥️🧨🔥.”.

Later in the podcast episode, the “Like a Prayer” singer was joined by her Kabbalah teacher Eitan Yardeni, with whom she has launched a new course titled The Mystical Studies of the Zohar.

She went on to acknowledge that she was once “a slave or victim of other people’s opinions of me.”.

Over the years she says she’s accepted that “I don’t fit in, and not fitting in is what saves you.”.

Madonna’s appearance on On Purpose with Jay Shetty marked her first-ever podcast interview.

During the episode, the music icon discussed her longtime journey with spirituality – which began shortly before the birth of her first child, Lourdes Leon.