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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Jacob Phillips

Madonna splits with her boxer boyfriend Josh Popper after just a year

Madonna has split up with her boxer boyfriend Josh Popper after spending the past seven months on the road on her Celebration world tour.

The couple had reportedly struggled to spend time together as the pop sensation, 65, left London last October to perform an eclectic mix of her catalogue across the globe.

Madonna first met Popper, who is 35 years younger than the pop star, when he began giving her son boxing lessons.

A source told the Sun: “Madonna has barely seen Josh for months because her schedule was so hectic. Things just fizzled out.

“There is genuinely no bad blood — they’re still fond of each other.

"At the moment their relationship doesn’t feel feasible and they’ve cooled things off, but they are staying friends.”

Popper had featured on visuals on the singer’s world tour during the song Erotica and even joined her on stage during a performance in Brooklyn in December.

The boxer, who coaches at his New York studio, last posted about Madonna on Valentine’s Day when he shared photos of them together on Instagram with the caption: “Missing Portugal.”

Earlier this month, Madonna performed her biggest-ever show, closing her Celebration world tour in front of 1.6 million fans with free tickets on Rio’s Copacabana beach. 

Despite starting 50 minutes late, Madonna packed over 20 songs from 15 albums into her show and was joined on stage by Latin star Anitta to perform "Vogue". 

The Copacabana show dwarfed her previous record crowd of 130,000 at Paris' Parc des Sceaux in 1987.

Madonna’s team did not respond when approached by the Sun for comment on the break-up.

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