Her manic obsession with her body image was one of the reasons that Madonna’s marriage fell to pieces. Known to spend over four hours a day working out, the musclebound singer spent more time working out than with her family. But at 52, her Madgesty’s figure is the envy of the world (although Guy Ritchie compared it to “a piece of gristle”) and now we, too can soon buy into the body! Madonna has launched her first gym, The Hard Candy Fitness Centre, interestingly, in Mexico City! The 30,000 foot space focuses on music, dance, lighting and design and is set to be the ultimate gym, with Madonna’s slogan “Harder is Better”.

She said Mexico City was chosen “as a place to fine-tune our brand and then expand it to other countries and, in the long term, develop a global brand that includes the United States.” There are plans in the works to open more branches in major cities around the world in the next year and expand the Madonna Empire, a fresh concept for celebrity enterprising. Trust Madonna not to go for the typical fragrance route. The star gave a 45-minute gym and dance lesson to lucky club members. We’d like to imagine it was in that pink Hung Up leotard, while straddling the flashing boom box.

However, the gym didn’t get off to a roaring start after Demetrio Sodi, the chief of the municipality where the gym is located, said that the new facility lacked the proper permits. Everything was put on hold for a day until the missing documents were provided. Phew!

Grace x