Madonna in hospital after birthday riding accident
Madonna has suffered serious injuries including a broken collar bone after falling from a new horse on her 47th birthday.
The singer was riding in her country estate Ashcombe House, accompanied by her personal assistant, when she tumbled from the unfamiliar horse.
Her husband Guy Ritchie and her two children Rocco, 5, and Lourdes, 8, were all at home in Tollard Royal, on the Wiltshire-Dorset border, for the star’s birthday when the accident happened in the late afternoon.
Mr Ritchie drove his wife to a nearby hospital where she was being treated tonight for a series of fractures. As well as her collar bone, she broke bones in one hand and suffered three cracked ribs. She was expected to be released later tonight.
Liz Rosenberg, Madonna’s publicist based in New York, said that the singer had been riding a horse to which she was not accustomed when she took the fall. “The whole family was out in the country, celebrating her birthday,” she said.
Barbara Charone, her spokeswoman, added: “Madonna fell off a new horse she was riding late this afternoon at Ashcombe House, her country house outside of London. She sustained three cracked ribs, a broken collar bone and a broken hand but is expected to be released from hospital later this evening. The star was celebrating her 47th birthday with her husband, film director Guy Ritchie and her two children, Lourdes and Rocco.”
Since they have moved into the mid-18th century estate the couple have waged a protracted legal action to prevent walkers from having right of way across their land.
Madonna has only recently taken up riding, booking lessons in south-west London. Notorious for her ability for re-invention she will no doubt take the advice given to all junior equestrians after their first tumble: get back on.
From an article by Simon Freeman and Adam Luck, Times Online
• Singer Madonna injured in riding accident
Singer Madonna suffered several broken bones on Tuesday when she fell off a horse while riding at her English country estate on her 47th birthday, her spokeswoman said.
“She sustained three cracked ribs, a broken collar bone and a broken hand but is expected to be released from hospital later this evening,” spokeswoman Barbara Charone said of the accident at Madonna’s Ashcombe House estate.
“The star was celebrating her 47th birthday with her husband, film director Guy Ritchie and her two children, Lourdes and Rocco,” Charone said in a statement released in London. The singer was riding with her assistant when she had the accident. Her husband rushed her to hospital.
“She was riding a new horse, not her regular horse,” her New York publicist Liz Rosenberg said. “Hopefully she’s going to get out of the hospital late tonight but she did suffer a few breaks, so she’s pretty banged up, obviously,” Rosenberg said.
From an article by Paul Majendie, Reuters
• Madonna’s Bad B-Day Break
For most stars in the fickle music business, the bad break is hitting middle age. For Madonna, it’s suffering bad breaks on her 47th birthday.
The still potent pop powerhouse broke a collarbone, fractured a hand and cracked three ribs Tuesday after she fell from a horse while riding on her London-area estate, publicist Liz Rosenberg confirmed to E! News.
On the occasion of the 47th anniversary of her 1958 debut in Bay City, Michigan, the former Madonna Ciccone was taken to a hospital by husband Guy Ritchie. She is expected to remain in the unnamed facility through Tuesday night, Rosenberg said.
Per the publicist, Madonna, her writer-director spouse and her two children were marking the family matriarch’s birthday by spending the day in the English countryside. The celebration took a painful turn when Madonna, out riding with an assistant, was thrown from a horse that was new to her.
To hear one British tab tell it, just about every horse is new to Madonna. London’s Mirror gossiped last month that the pop star is a recent convert to the equestrian lifestyle, part of the American singer’s latest bid to, as it said, “reinvent herself as an English country wife.”
Prior to the fall, the highlight of Madonna’s summer vacation had been helping front the London portion of the Live 8 megaconcert in July. She was one of the few acts to also have performed on the Live Aid bill 20 years earlier.
It would behoove the era-defying entertainer to be a fast healer, if for no other commercial reason than the promotional road beckons. Her latest album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, is due out in November.
From an article by Joal Ryan, E!Online