Madonna's late mother reached out to her from "the other side" when she was in a coma

Speaking to Jay Shetty on his On Purpose podcast, she said: "I was almost there on the other side, and I had a conscious moment. My mother appeared to me, and she said, 'Do you want to come with me?' And I said, 'No.'

"My assistant was in the room with me, but I was still unconscious, but she heard me say, 'No.' And then when I did eventually wake up, I realised that the 'No' was about me needing to forgive and make good with people that I still held grudges against."

The 67-year-old singer admitted one of her "biggest enemies" was her brother Christopher Ciccone - who she fell out over work-related issues before their feud deepened when he released his 2008 best-selling book Life With My Sister Madonna - and she admitted it was "hard" to overcome her resentment towards him.

She said: "It's important to find a way to forgive even people that you perceive as your biggest enemies.

"For a really long time, it was my brother, who died recently, because I think the hardest ones are the people that you feel like you're the closest to ... the people that hurt you the most are the people you love the most.

"If someone you love deeply betrays you, and does something that shows that they have no consciousness in that moment that they made that choice to do that, it's a bitter pill for me to swallow."

But Madonna was grateful they repaired their rift before Christopher died of pancreatic cancer last year.

She added: "For my brother, I didn't speak to him for three years. Years and years. And it was him being ill and reaching out to me and saying, 'I need your help', that means having that moment, like, 'Am I gonna help my enemy?' And I just did.

"It was such a load off my back, such a weight that was removed, baggage that was put down to finally be able to be in a room with him and holding his hand, even if he was dying, saying, 'I love you and I forgive you.' That was really important."