It's not the first time this year that reports from Madonna's Rebel Heart world tour have suggested that she was drunk on stage, and it probably won't be the last.

Earlier in the year, the pop star called TMZ 'sexist' for claiming that she turned up late to a gig and was intoxicated - and now it's happened again, after she got upset at a gig in Australia last week.

Various media sources reported the gig as 'chaotic' and 'bizarre' after she went into a rambling, emotional speech with a photo of her son Rocco as a toddler on a screen behind her, saying that 'I probably would have enjoyed myself on the tour a lot more if he hadn't disappeared so suddenly, and also, if I knew when I would see him again."

She is currently in the midst of a custody battle with ex-husband Guy Ritchie for the now-teenage Rocco.

 

In the early hours of this morning, she posted a screengrab of a fan's defence of her (below) to Instagram, with the caption: "Thanks for supporting me. Too bad people don't know the art of acting and playing a character. I could never do any of my shows high or drunk. And yes underlying all of this is sexism and mysongony which proves that not only do we not get equal pay bUt we are still treated like heretics if we step out of line and think outside the box! . Sexism is alive and kicking but i am #livingforlove"

 

Via Billboard