Madonna has been married to director Guy Ritchie for about seven and a half years, and the two have been plagued by breakup rumors ever since. They’ve somehow managed to make it work, scheduling dinners at high profile restaurants and alerting the paparazzi whenever another split story surfaces. It may soon be long-overdue curtains for the couple. A source quoted by Holy Moly claims that Madonna has hired divorce lawyer to Britain’s elite, Nicholas Mostyn. The wiry singer was seen at Mostyn’s office about a week and a half ago. Mostyn has served on high profile divorce cases in the UK, representing Paul McCartney, and the triumphant spouses of Earl Spencer and Ray Parlour.
It is thought that Madonna and Guy have no prenup. It looks like Mr. Madonna is about to get a pretty decent payday even if Madonna has hired the best lawyer in Britain:
Suggestions made seem to indicate that, surprisingly, Madonna and Guy do NOT have a pre-nup in place, leaving Guy in line to walk away with up to half of Madge’s fortune (according to Forbes she earned $72m last year alone).
Long standing rumours of a rift between the couple are finally confirmed with this news, as Holy Moly’s sources suggest nothing more than “growing apart” as the reason for the split. They have spent increasing amounts of time apart with both Madonna’s new album and tour and Guy’s revived movie career are cited as reasons. The adoption of David Banda attracted a huge wave of negative publicity, allegedly putting further strain on the relationship. The couple have one other son, Rocco, and Lourdes, Madonna’s daughter from a relationship with her fitness instructor Carlos Leon.
Madge’s meeting with Nicholas Mostyn took place at his London office just over ten days ago.
[From Holy Moly]
Ritchie has just started to revive his long-comatose career after Madonna helped derail it with their obnoxious collaboration Swept Away in 2002. His 2005 film Revolver was critically panned and flopped at the box office, but he’s working again and has Rock N Rolla coming out later this year. He also is set to direct Sherlock Holmes for Warner Brothers, and is working on the script as well.
Madonna has tried her hand at directing, since she doesn’t have enough other stuff going on. She directed Filth and Wisdom, a semi-autobiographical piece about “three flatmates living desperate lives in London,” according to IMDB, and it’s out in the US also later this year. It’s seems like it would be a blow to Guy’s ego that his wife, who is already one of the most successful women on the planet, has started to muscle in on his territory. He may not be too bothered by it, though. In an interview in December of last year Guy demonstrated the laid back attitude that surely helps him endure his marriage. When asked if he was worried if Madonna’s career overshadowed his own he said “Don’t know what you mean! She’s got her career and I’ve got mine. What can you do? She’s Madonna.”
As for the health of their marriage, Madonna has admitted that she’s almost split with Ritchie in the past. In October, 2005 she said:
“My husband did not turn out to be everything I imagined him to be. I just wanted to end everything. It’s not easy having a good marriage but I don’t want it easy. I thank God every day that I married a man who made me think. That’s my definition of true love.” She added: “Your soulmate is the person that pushes all your buttons. Pisses you off on a regular basis and makes you face your s***.”
[From Starpulse]
Madonna also told OK! Magazine earlier this year that she and Guy sleep with their Blackberries under their pillows.
Holy Moly speculates that Madonna’s divorce will be kept as quiet as possible, but I bet it will be a circus. The press and public will be clamoring for details and there’s little chance they can keep this under wraps.
Madonna and Guy are shown looking miserable at the premiere of Madonna’s documentary I Am Because We Are in Cannes on 5/21/08, thanks to WENN.
Update: Madonna’s rep denies this report, saying “There is no truth to [reports of a divorce]. Madonna has not met with any lawyers nor are there any plans for a divorce.”
The photos say it all. They DO look miserable.
And “wiry” is a good description of Madonna now. I actually think she’s quite attractive when she keeps her clothes on. In the please-find-me-sexy leotards she insists on wearing, she looks freakish.
I’m not one to wish something bad on other people, but I think (and have thought from the start) that Guy is better off without Madge. She effectively brought his career to a halt the moment they tied the knot (whether she did it on purpose or not remains unknown) and it was a shame it happened. I also think that a guy like him can’t stand macrobiotic food, intense Kaballah, trendy adopting and generally the intensity of the big M, forever. I always had the feeling she smothered him.
I hope that they can get their divorce without too much ado and that he will be able to go back being the promising filmmaker he used to be. I don’t think there’s any place in Madonna’s world for anybody else except herself.
You know all of the Malawi officials are burning right now. Chances are phenomenal they knew the split was coming and played nice just to get the adoption finalized.
Kind of sorry about this. He was good for her as in not letting her dive too far up her own arse. I think they’ll have a very civilized divorce and the details will be kept private. I doubt very much that Richie has any plans to bleed her dry.
Bit sad tho, I liked these 2 together.
Very sad for all three kids.
I always thought that Madonna was too much of a control freak and am glad I am not one of her kids. Guy always seems to be a bit annoyed with and stifled by her Madgesty. I wondered how long he was going to be able to live with it. ❓
Guy’s not too bright (for marrying the vadge) but if he married the vadge with no prenup, I hope he takes her to the cleaners.
what kind of dumb bitch proceedes with an adoption knowing full well that the parents are going to split up? Dumb friggen whore!
She is a very selfish, self centered ego maniac. Thank God she’s not my mother. So sad for the children, at least they’ll always have their father for most the good things their mother lacks.
I find it really hard to believe that an in$anely bu$iness $avvy woman such as Madonna would marry without a pre-nup.
My god – I’ve just seen interviews with this woman and she seems like a complete power tripping bitch! I pity the poor bastard having to live with her – it might have been exciting to have such a “fiesty” woman in the beginning but now she’d just be a pain in the ass. I could just imagine when all he want to do is lounge around in his undies, drinking a couple of beers & watch Ultimate Fighter on cable she’d be chewing him out cause he hasnt completed 6 hours of exercise and had his colonic irrigation yet! 😆
Am I wrong in thinking that there are no pre-nups in the UK?
I hope he cleans her too. God knows he’s probably earned it, living with her this long.
Good call Syko
http://www.weddingguideuk.com/articles/legal/prenuptial.asp
I know that in France, for example, the power of the prenup is much less than in the US. You can protect some former assets and that’s it…
Legally speaking, in this country the prenup can’t control all the financial matters when you get married. It’s an extra contract that can save a little but definitely not everything.
Maybe it’s the same thing the UK?
As for this divorce: who didn’t see it coming?
I’m surprised Guy survived through almost eight years of marriage with Madonna. She might be some superstar, but she looks like an unagreeable freak to live with. No thanks.
If he did marry her with no prenup at all, then I guess Guy is a lot smarter than I thought.
No, you’re right, syko. There’s a lot of mumbling in legal quarters about it now since a particularly outrageous case in 2007 brought home the inadequacies of the current hogs grab that often ensues where very large assets are involved.
Personally, can’t see Ritchie taking advantage of this. Just doesn’t seem the type.
I kinda hope this gets messy if only so maybe England will take a hard look at legalizing pre-nups.
Headache, if the Mills/McCartney divorce didn’t do that, then nothing will.
I bet Ritchie is jumping for joy to finally be rid of the old shrew!
Many marriages break up, that is just reality. She probably did not know when she adopted that child, that her marriage would fall apart.
Hope this is not true. But Guy has not seemed happy for years, especially lately. It’s difficult for many couples when one’s career is hot and the other’s is not.
He is better off without this shrew of a bitch. She does seem to think she can do anything and everything, but in my opinion, she can’t even sing. I wish him luck in this divorce. I feel sorry for the kids too. She seems a bit mommy dearest and hope those kids don’t rebel bigtime when they get older, if she lets them out of their cages long enough.
Guy looks so bored with his Auntie Madge. Madge always seemed to be much more smitten with Guy, than he was with her. Madonna is an egomaniac, but I attribute that to her losing her mom when she was 7. She figured that becoming & acting like a man was the only way to escape her stepmom (whom she hated) and her controlling father. Most women would love to possess the power that Madonna has attained in this world. Most married women feel powerless, lonely, and unappreciated. I doubt Madonna will ever feel this way.
I don’t know how he stood her for that long. She is an egomaniac.
Yes, she is an ego maniac. However, she is also getting older now. Guy is a younger man, a famous man with money. He may want to move on to another woman.
Madonna may not be able to make her career work forever. Already many young people are like “Madonna who?” She is a product of a bygone era.
I always thought they looked miserable together, and that maybe they were trying to last for Rocco’s sake in particular.
It’s possible that they wanted to split about a year ago (when the rumours about a divorce were rife, and even Guy’s dad was part of the grapevine). They made a deal to stay together so she could adopt a child. It was common knowledge that she wanted a third. Then the Malawian adoption committee got involved and they would keep up appearances until David was legally hers. Just a theory.
Also, “Your soulmate is the person that pushes all your buttons. Pisses you off on a regular basis…”
Maybe Madonna should examine her complicated relationship with her dad. A loving relationship doesn’t mean one partner has to “piss off” the other. Does she think that way because her dad was always pissing her off when she was young???
I love all the pop-psychology! Keep it up! For my two cents, Madonna’s a woman who is used to bullying or buying her way. If someone, or even her husband (gasp!) is tired of it, she gets rid of them. Simple as that. Her next movie should be called “She can because she does”
yes, madonna has power
but i doubt anyone would ever want to trade places with her outside of the business sphere.
after her kids go to bed, she is very lonely
i hope her blackberry is ready to do some extra comforting
Here’s my 2p worth of pop psychology!
They WERE genuinely happy together but his ambition and priorities never matched hers and at the beginning, this was very attractive to her, a man with a mind of his own who was unimpressed by who she was. He really is her polar opposite. He’s very laid back, his idea of a good night out has always been going down the pub with his mates for a pint. He did a fair bit of red carpeting with her over the years but you could tell his heart wasn’t in it. What started out as a genuine attraction on both their parts was ultimately killed by the thing that brought them together in the first place. Their differences.
Also, she’s been going on about moving back to the States for quite a while now and there’s just no way in the world that he would want to do this. They’ve just grown apart, like people do, and are quitting while they’re ahead.
I don’t even like her but I liked the idea of her being with Ritchie because he didn’t take any shit from her.
I’ve never been a big fan of Guy Ritchie – he always came across as a bit pretentious; either posing as an East End gangster or dressing like a country gent when in reality he’s as middle class as they come. But I doubt he’ll do a Heather Mills. He never seemed that interested in the money or the limelight, unlike the lovely Heather. Nana Madge is a shrewd woman and I reckon she’ll offer him a decent enough deal in order to keep it quiet and low-key.
Great! Can he sue to get his career back? He hasn’t made a decent film since he married her. Maybe he can find a real woman instead of a tranny-wannabe.
I hope she chooses to continue living in England. We certainly don’t need here back in the US.
So, her kids will be screwed up. Overly controlling mommy-dearest and revolving daddies for the kids? What kind of environment is that for the kids?
People know when their marriages are in trouble. It is unforgivable that she adopted a baby KNOWING she was going to create a broken home. So now little David has lost his mother, his father, his country, and is about to lose another father and another country? And she thinks she is doing something good for this poor child?
She is, was, and always will be a selfish skank.
These two deserve each other. The only thing that kept them together this long is the arrogance of each one involved. He deserved to loose his credibility for putting this no-talent skank in a movie.
Madonna doesn’t seem happy. She seems like someone you would see on an episode of Tue Life “I Have Embarassing Parents”.
Thrusting her 50 year old vag in everybody’s face, destroying her face with too much plastic surgery, destroying her body with exercise, She just seems like the old lady at the club. It’s sad.
No matter how much money or fame she has it seems like growing older is fing her up.
Madonna doesn’t really need to appeal to younger people since her fan base is pretty insane already. As for her career not lasting forever, she’s certainly made her recording career work pretty well for about 30 years, and is currently a gazillionaire. Maybe when her tours stop selling out she’ll start to worry about getting old, but she’ll always have money. Her residuals alone have to be ridiculous.
I agree with geronimo, I love Guy Ritchie, and it seemed like he was strong enough to not be taken over by her persona, but it’s true, though opposites attract, unless they find common ground, those differences soon become the proverbial “bullet in the gun”.
Madonna has a tough bitch exterior. This isn’t new. It’s her persona. Over the years, personal details slipped out here and there, about who she is behind the closed door. Though rabidly protective of personal life details, she couldn’t hide everything. She’s actually quite vulnerable and fragile in the arena of love. Guy is a bully who most likely shat on her ideas constantly and belittled her efforts as well. I’m not saying she’s the greatest talent out there, but she’s not the worst either. Mo and I have the same heart (cue laughs). If you have a talented, intelligent man and he doesn’t respect or appreciate your art, or efforts, it doesn’t matter how many people say they love your work in the end. I’m sure Guy provoked her and she turned and said “oh ya? I’ll show your griping ass!” And as a result, delivered two super selling, super loved releases, and two movies.
I’m sorry Mo. I wished it had worked.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels REALLY bad for Guy. Did anyone see that documentary he made a few years back about her concert tour – I think it was 2004-05, or something. I actually fell in love w/ Guy in the documentary – he seems like a really great, really involved father (to Rocco) and step-father (to Lourdes).
That being said, I really hope he has a beautiful slut on the side. He’s one of the few married men who actually deserves a good time, away from the ball & chain (MadgeVadge).
All that money and she still can’t fix that huge gap in her teeth. She wore out her welcome to my CD collection years ago.
Can’t stand her !
I absolutely loathe madonna. She is the most narcissistic egomaniac i’ve ever had grace my tv screen. Between her cow eyes, veiny arms, gap tooth, and excessive Me-Syndrome, I couldn’t be happier if she went into retirement with severe dementia. Her poor children. Doesn’t she realize that the 80s are over? Now she’s just fully, over-the-top irritating. GO AWAY MADONNA…EVERYONE HATES YOU!
I’ve read enough detailed interviews with Madonna from the past 20 plus years (some going way back) to recognize a world-class control freak. Control issues arise out of trust issues. Somewhere along the way, for some reason or reasons, Madonna learned not to trust ANYONE and her control issues were born. This probably happened when she was pretty young.
I have always felt sorry for her kids. I mean, yeah, you see these totally permissive celeb parents, but going to the opposite extreme isn’t any better or healthier. Just bad in the other direction.
I honestly doubt she’ll ever find anyone who could tolerate her for long periods of time. Guy will probably be the record holder.
I have only ever been able to listen to one of her albums and that’s Ray of Light. The rest are just heinous. And just to set it straight most married women do not feel “powerless lonely and unappreciated”. I’m married and I sure don’t. I adore my husband but he also isn’t the be all and end all in my life. I have a PhD, a job that makes me think, and a lot of my own interests. I think Madonna is an example of someone who has everything money can buy but nothing she really needs. When you see her in interviews she comes off as very self-centered and not very happy.
Having said all of that I think Madonna looks awful. Far too thin, and veiny and miserable. What has she done to her face? There is something to be said for getting older gracefully. Never thought I’d hear myself say it but at 42 I’m changing my ideas 🙂 No botox for me thanks.
You could tell they were having problems when she adopted David. I know those Malawai people wish they could take back some of those compliments. Africans are pretty old school about. I’m surprised Guy lasted as long as he did. Maybe he will be involoved in David’s life.
Guy looks shocking with all that face fur. Get rid of it mate.
Butch……for what it’s worth, you’ve come the closest so far
Am I the only one here who thinks Guy physically abuses Madonna? Really? Do you all really think she’s that accident prone? Can you remember there were rumors of that while she was with Sean too. Ask yourself why she was wearing long sleeves and long gowns everytime she went out in Cannes and she looked warm and uncomfortable. Others were sleevless. It was hot.
Shocker. The control freak who kept promising to slow down and that family was the most important to her…who never slowed down and adopted a child in the midst of a world tour, for image control…is getting a divorce. The girl is sucking face with other woman onstage. Don’t you think Guy Ritchie has had enough. I lost respect for the guy the second he started dating her. She’s evil.
Yes! You can tame your toddlers! In this book, I will show you how. No matter what we did to them or with them, everything was wrong.