Lourdes Leon pictured smoking a cigarette at the age of 15

Lourdes Leon, Madonna’s teenage daughter, appears to already have picked up a bad nicotine habit after she was pictured smoking a cigarette on Friday.

Lourdes Leon, 15, was seen puffing away as she loitered around with male friends in New York.

The eldest daughter of Madonna had the cigarette in her hand as a pal lighted it for her and seemed very comfortable with it. The legal age for smoking in America is 18.

Wearing a black and white mini dress with matching shoes, Lourdes Leon, a 10th grade schoolgirl, wore dark shades and her long hair loosely around her shoulders.

At one point Lourdes Leon even sneakily tried to hide the cigarette in her hand by holding it upside down as she walked along.

Lourdes Leon, Madonna's teenage daughter, was pictured smoking a cigarette at the age of 15

She is following in her mother’s footsteps in many ways including her passion for fashion with the family’s clothing line Material Girl.

But as Madonna was seen seductively posing with a cigarette in her latest music video Girl Gone Wild, it appears it may be a bad habit picked up closer to home.

Madonna’s rep had denied the singer had started smoking again after pictures surfaced of her with what looked like a cigarette in hand while shooting her movie W.E. in 2010.

But regardless of whether Madonna was just posing with it or does still smoke, it may not be the best example to set for her four children.

Lourdes Leon will reportedly join her mother’s backing dancers when she kicks off her 50-country world tour in Israel in May.

“It is the first time Lourdes will have appeared on stage with her mum,” says a source.

“There are risqué dancers and some blatantly sexual dance routines – but Madonna is really excited about Lourdes making an appearance.”