Madonna, now retirement age, is having fun with boyfriend, 29

Madonna turned 67 this month — officially old enough to collect Social Security benefits — and has been living la dolce vita on holiday in Italy with her much younger boyfriend and brood of kids. And friends say it has been a long time since they’ve seen the star “glowing” with such happiness.

Maybe it’s the new beauty treatments?

One insider told The Post that 29-year-old Akeem Morris, whose romance with the perennial Material Girl went public last year, has convinced her that she doesn’t need all the fillers and augmentations that made her face appear at once tightly frozen and puffy at the 2023 Grammys, shocking viewers.

“She’s starting to listen to Akeem, who tells her she’s beautiful. She doesn’t normally listen to anyone but she does him,” the insider said. “She now wants to own being 67 rather than trying to look 27. And so she’s been doing things like LED lights, oxygen facials, lymphatic drainage — things that just give your face a refresh.

‘Everyone is obsessed with what she’s done to her face, and so she’s decided to try and look a bit more natural after that whole Grammys appearance a few years ago … Her face is so iconic that it needs to look like her — she wants it to look less sculpted and she wants her face to move.”

The Queen of Pop brought Nigerian-born Akeem Morris, a former soccer star whom she met on a photoshoot, to Tuscany for the birthday celebrations which also included her son Rocco Ritchie, 25, and daughters Lourdes Leon, 28, Mercy James, 19, and 12-year-old twins Stella and Estere. (Only son David Banda, 19, was not seen in photos.)

Besides staying at a stunning 16th-century villa owned by Sting, Madonna & Co. were pictured watching the famous Palio horse race in Siena, dancing up a storm and celebrating her big day with a pink cake in the shape of a Labubu doll — wearing a version of her iconic cone-shaped bra and adorned with the message “Happy birthday Madudu.”

“She is glowing these days and a lot of that is down to Akeem,” the friend added. “She dotes on him and plans trips, parties, even silly little dance videos. Akeem makes her laugh a lot and that’s why he is so important … he enjoys the attention.”

But the friend also admitted that Morris may just be Madonna’s Mr. Right Now rather than an eternal Mr. Right.

“She says she doesn’t need it to be a great love story. It’s about companionship and that’s what she needs more than anything else,” the friend said. “She’s described to me how she doesn’t need a toyboy — this isn’t a cougar fantasy — but she wants someone to be with her at midnight when she can’t sleep. And that is Akeem.

“More than anything else, she realizes that it is fun and laughter that keep her young. And that is why Akeem is so important to her.”

After an extremely dangerous bacterial infection landed Madonna in the ICU in 2023, leading to her being put in a medically induced coma for 48 hours — and her brother Christopher Ciccone died of pancreatic cancer last December — she’s taken solace not only in her kids but also her work.

In fact, the star is back in the recording studio for the first time in six years.

She has been working in London on a sequel to her hit 2005 album “Confessions on a Dance Floor”; although the new record has a title — reportedly “Confessions 2” — there is no release date yet.

“She is throwing herself into the studio again, and it’s healing for her. She keeps calling this album medicine,” the friend said. “She says the album is about ‘dancing through the pain’ and it has a story to it. The first ‘Confessions’ was about escape, but this one is about survival. She’s lived a lot since 2005, and this is therapy set to a beat.”

Madonna is also said to be a bit itchy after her remix album “Veronica Electronica” — a collection of songs remixed from her legendary 1998 “Ray of Light” album and named for her alter ego from that era — created little fanfare upon its July release.

‘She was a bit disappointed by sales of ‘Veronica Electronica’ — and puts some of it down to ageism,” the friend added. “For ‘Confessions 2’ she’s concentrating not on chart positions but on proving to herself she can reinvent. She is really buzzing about the music.”

Morris is often in the background while she is in the studio, the friend said: “He might just nod and smile [about] her work but he is someone she can talk to about her enthusiasm. She just really likes having him around.”

She’s also still concerned with her legacy, even though the film version of her life has had a rocky road.

The latest is that the project will now be a limited series on Netflix — and she is still very hopeful that Emmy-winning actress Julia Garner will play her.

“She’s been keeping notes about her life for years and now she is ready to let people in,” the friend said. But she wants to retain control of it and some of that is difficult to let go of.

“She says that [some creative executives involved] want the mess and not just the magic, so there is a bit of to and fro about what stays in.”

Garner reportedly beat out other actresses including Florence Pugh and Sydney Sweeney, undergoing a super intense “boot camp,” to play Madonna in a previously planned film before it was axed last year.

The actress confirmed in July that the latest version of the project is “supposed to still happen.”

“Julia isn’t confirmed, but that’s who Madonna wants,” the friend said. “She sees Julia as having the same fire and steel that she’s always had.”