Madonna has reinvented herself more times than almost anyone in pop, lived in England for the best part of a decade, and raised children who grew up partly British. There is, however, one very British thing she will not do, and she said so on a red carpet in 2011. Asked about her devotion to her family, she drew a single, firm line in the sand, and the line was made of Marmite.
Does Madonna like Marmite?
No. At the Toronto Film Festival premiere of her film “W.E.” in 2011, Madonna said: “I would do anything for my children. For sure. Except have a Marmite sandwich. My daughter’s insistent that I eat one, but I won’t! Vile!” It is a hard verdict to top, partly the word “vile” and partly the set-up. She will do anything for her kids, except this.
The quote, and where it came from
There is a backstory that makes it better. Madonna’s daughter Lourdes is thought to have developed her taste for Marmite while the family was living in the UK, during Madonna’s marriage to the British director Guy Ritchie. So this is not an American simply recoiling from a strange foreign food. It is a mother who lived here, whose own child became a convert, and who still drew the line at the jar. The love-it-or-hate-it divide, running straight through one famous family.
Who is Madonna?
Madonna Louise Ciccone was born on 16 August 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. She moved to New York to pursue dance and music, and from the early 1980s became the most successful female recording artist of the modern era, the “Queen of Pop”. Albums such as “Like a Virgin”, “Like a Prayer” and “Ray of Light” changed how pop sounded and looked, and she has sold hundreds of millions of records worldwide.
Madonna’s British years
For Marmite purposes, the relevant chapter is her time in Britain. Madonna married Guy Ritchie in 2000, lived in London and the English countryside, and immersed herself in British life to the point of picking up the accent, which drew plenty of comment at the time. The marriage ended in 2008. She has also acted, winning a Golden Globe for “Evita”, and directed films including “W.E.”, which is what put her on that 2011 red carpet to deliver her Marmite verdict in the first place.
Madonna’s notable work at a glance
- “Like a Virgin” (1984)
- “Like a Prayer” (1989)
- “Ray of Light” (1998)
- Evita (1996), Golden Globe winner
- W.E. (2011), as director
- One of the best-selling music artists of all time
