‘Really upsetting’: Madonna posed for Instagram pic with knife to throat and fans were appalled

Madonna posted bizarre photos of herself with a knife held to her throat on Instagram - and people were baffled.

On Sunday, the legendary singer took to her account to share photos of herself posing with a copy of her latest V Magazine shoot alongside photographer Steven Klein.

“Proud of my collaboration with @stevenkleinstudio For @vmagazine and knowing that against all odds And with very little support from non-artistic people who kept pushing back and the fact that we did it with almost zero budget we were still able to make ART!” the artist wrote.

She also thanked those who were a help to the photoshoot “who did support us and slept on couches and worked long hours and for free.”

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Some people in the comments of her post wondered if the workers were treated properly.

“Worked for free??? Why didn’t you pay them yourself? Are you short on cash or something?” someone wrote.

“The definition of exploitation = People working for you for free in the name of ‘art,’” another added.

But what really stirred up the internet was the second picture in the slides that shows Klein holding up a knife to the artist’s throat, as she holds one of the controversial photos.

“The knife photo is really upsetting. Unfollowed him [Klein] so I’m unfollowing you, too,” a third wrote

This isn’t the first time that Madonna’s V Magazine photoshoot came with backlash, with some saying it’s in “bad taste.”

In October, the singer faced some controversy over her “recreating” Marilyn Monroe’s “death bed.”

“I find this so disrespectful and in extremely bad taste recreating Marilyn’s death. Not cool, Madonna. Marilyn was and is so much more than her death,” a fourth wrote.

Monroe passed away from a drug overdose in her Los Angeles home in August 1962.

Klein released a statement about the shoot saying that the shoot was less about Monroe herself, and more about the “relationship between photographer and subject.”

“We were not interested in recreating the images exactly but more importantly, we wanted to explore the relationship between photographer and subject. Both the friendship and the artistic process, and how art can imitate life and vice versa.”

Despite the controversy, Madonna, who received praise from her Madame X concept film also announced that she is co-directing and co-writing an upcoming biopic which she described as a “visual autobiography.”

“Grateful for the success of Madame X, that my script is almost finished and for the support of my beautiful children!”