Madonsela raised her two children, a boy and a girl, as a single parent. Her husband died when the children were very young. In 1980, Madonsela began her career as an assistant teacher at her former school, Evelyn Baring High School, in Swaziland. In 1982 she became an assistant teacher at Naledi High School in Soweto, one of the schools at the center of the 1976 Soweto Uprising. In late July 2018, it was revealed that Madonsela was engaged to Dick Foxton, a public relations consultant.