Heaven forbid the Madonna/Guy Ritchie divorce wasn’t personal enough already – the pair have decided to both call their household staff to testify in the case. Guy wants them to back him up on his claims that Madonna hardly ever took care of the kids herself (thus he should be their primary caregiver) and was cold, erratic, and rageful. Madge wants them to back up her assertions that Guy was “emotionally distant,” cursed around the kids and was sometimes “inappropriate” in his behavior.
Guy’s argument is that Madonna should not be considered the children’s primary carer simply because she rarely cared for them – that nannies and other looked after them while Madonna pursued her career. Guy claims that especially in recent months, in the run up to Madonna’s world tour, when nannies were not caring for the children, he would be. He is also hoping staff will confirm his wife became increasingly erratic and volatile and would erupt into furious rages if things did not go her way.
If he was ever late or had to change or break an arrangement, for example, Madonna would lose her temper and hurl a torrent of abuse at him. Guy is expected to claim that Madonna became increasingly unpleasant over the adoption of a further girl from Malawi, Mercy James, and was furious over the kiss and tell publication of a book by her brother Christopher Ciccone.
Guy also hopes domestic staff will be able to chronical how Madonna was too controlling over the children’s macrobiotic diet and banning them from watching TV and reading newspapers.
Madonna on the other hand is also taking witness statements from staff which she hope will illustrate that Guy was ’emotionally distant’, and at times inappropriate in his language and behaviour around the children. She hopes the statements will help her counter-argument that Guy too was only concerned about the advancement of his own career at the detriment of time spent around their children.
‘The entire way they wanted the children brought up was different’, said a source. ‘Each would constantly pick holes in the way the other one over it.’ Madonna claims Guy would occasionally swear within earshot of the children and on occasion, would roll home quite drunk from being out drinking with friends. Madonna is searching high and low for evidence to support the claim that Guy was a bad father in order to support her case that the children should live with her in New York.
[From the Daily Mail]
Madonna and the macrobiotic diet thing always annoyed me. Not in terms of herself, but forcing such an incredibly strict diet on her children seemed like she was asking for trouble. My mother was overly-restrictive with food while I was growing up (certainly not to Madonna’s extent) and as soon as I got to make my own decisions I went hog wild – there were years of things to make up for! Considering her own rebellious nature Madonna shouldn’t be surprised if her kids rebel in a very permanent way against all the freedom she’s restricted them from.
I think Guy sounds like a much more reasonable parent, and the accusations against him are relatively minor and normal. However I highly doubt any court would take the kids away from their mother unless Guy could prove she is seriously detrimental in some way. The custody issues will only affect Rocco and David, since Lourdes is Madonna’s child from another relationship. Separating siblings can cause lifelong rifts. Certainly there are no good solutions here, just less bad ones.
Here’s Madonna leaving her gym after a workout in September. She was probably rushing home to one of her scheduled sex sessions with guy. Images thanks to WENN.
Ugly, ugly, ugly… If all the rumours are true, of course. But it isn’t hard to believe that someone as demanding as Madonna would be so focused on her tour that she would leave her children with nannies most of the time. At the very least, doesn’t she spend three or four hours a day in the gym? That in itself is pretty nasty.
“Madonna is searching high and low….”
Well if that doesn’t just sum up her desperation. To have to search high and low for bad-dad evidence and all she can come up with is that he swears in front of the kids occasionally and comes home a bit drunk now and then…
I hope Guy gets the kids.
So for those of us playing at home; Madonna feeds her children whole foods, monitors what they watch and read, and leaves them in the care of nannies to work. Guy on the other hand is accused of behaving inappropriately around the children, doesn’t care what they eat or watch, leaves the children in the care of a nanny to go drinking, and accused of being emotionally distant toward the children, and the charges leveled against Madonna are more serious? You really fear for the well being of the children and are concerned about PERMANENT damage that they may suffer from eating whole foods?
YIKES… Glad you were never my child advocate.
the issue here isn’t the fact that she feeds them “whole foods” – its the restrictive practices that she imposes. I understand that children need to be taught discipline, and learn to obey rules, but seriously, can’t a kids just enjoy their childhood and experience what other children experience? ice cream? lollies? birthday parties where they’ll eating …… birthday cakes? Not allowing them to watch tv and read newspapers? so how are they going to develope their critical thinking skills?
Her deadlock restrictions will be much more detrimental to the children long term, than guy’s “emotionally distance” behaviour “at times”
>>However I highly doubt any court would take the kids away from their mother unless Guy could prove she is seriously detrimental in some way.<<
I don’t understand why this should be the case – it seems old-fashioned to assume that a mother is always the primary or best parent, especially when children are past the age of breast-feeding. I would hope that the judge would weigh both parents’ abilities equally.
Allowing children ice-cream and lollies is not one of the ten commandments is it?
So now this person who – by the tenor of the majority of posts is not even a human being (I think it was Jay-Bird who wrote she doubted Madonna had any feelings)- is to be hammered for trying to prevent bad eating habits in her children
Talk about a mob mentality – the public won’t be happy until she’s been dragged thru the streets by her ankles and her head stuck on a pike at the head of Tower Bridge
“Kill the bitch, Kill the bitch, Kill the bitch”
sheesh
hope the kids can stay in England so that they continue in the same schools, have the same friends they’ve had, be with the same nannies, and have both parents nearby. that seems to be the best thing for the kids. why can’t madonna put the kids’ needs first? that would be the loving, spiritual thing to do. she’s so selfish and such a big phony.
I’ve always assumed that Guy was the better parent. This just confirms it.
Team Guy!
Madonna exudes about as much maternal warmth as a petrified dog turd.
Shouldn’t these kids be in school and have a stable home instead of touring the world with their pop-star mother?
I believe in moderation. If you are NEVER allowed to watch TV or eat a piece of cake, that’s bad. Watching TV and eating cake to excess isn’t good either. It sounds like Guy was pleading for moderation, while Madonna was going overboard and imposing too many restrictions.
But it’s OK. The kids probably bribe their nannies to take them out for ice cream anyway.
Rosie O’Donnell and Madonna are friends and she has said that when Madges’ kids visit they eat junk food and watch TV so I’m thinking Madonna let’s them bend the rules outside of the house.I have no problem with that.
I agree to put the kids first. From personal experience, splitting up the kids is a huge mistake. In the US usually the parent with custody has to petition the court to leave the state with the minor children.
What passports do the children hold?
“Madonna claims Guy would occasionally swear within earshot of the children…” Oh dear, she better call child welfare on him but remember, Madonna, how skanky you look in all your videos and your book and pictures of you all over the world and internet and… Team Guy all the way. I really don’t like that woman.
keeping kids on a macrobiotic diet isnt being ‘concerned about nutrition.’ there are many ways of making sure your kids eat healthily, as my parents did (hippies, but we had occasional treats, but generally stayed away from processed foods and too much sugar and ate plenty of whole grains and veggies and fruit). making your kids hop on the bandwagon of your neurotic, trendy, obsessive diet has nothing to do with health and everything to do with paranoia and control, because it appears to be coupled with restricting access to information/entertainment from other sources, such as TV and newspapers, both of which have a tendency to counteract/refute the ways in which things are done at home. meaning madonna doesnt want her kids to see too much of how other people live, what is NORMAL for others to eat, think, etc. her obsession with controlling these kinds of things sounds like other religious fundamentalist cultish types who make sure no papers are read or TV is watched, like hardcore mormons for example, or Waco.
Madonna is clearly way overboard on this-this falls way outside the realm of normal concerned parent.
Vis, I didn’t see anything written about Guy not caring about what they watched or ate… Guy sounds like he’s more moderate and accommodating. I agree that the days of automatically assuming the mother should get custody are outdated.
The children should remain in England. That is their home, and it would allow for liberal time spent with both parents. Granted, Lourdes is another man’s child, but she has been raised by GR for most of her life. Even though he’s not the bio dad, she still has a father-daughter relationship with him. Rocco shouldn’t be snatched away from his father and his country just because mommy wants to whore around with someone else now. And pity poor little David. He’s already lost one father and one country. Now he has to lose another father and another country? What is that going to do to him mentally? That cannot be good for him.
Yes, I know they are wealthy and can visit back and forth, but that doesn’t replace having both parents around on a regular basis, involved in their day to day lives.
These two need to stop and re-think their priorities. Those children should come before their own wants. GR should absolutely fight any attempt at moving those kids to the US. And if he fails at that, he should move to the US himself to be close to them.
Of course, I doubt any of this will happen. They will continue to be raised by nannies, and will have both parents as part time visitors, who spend time with them between their ever-so-important projects. As if they needed more money…
It’s just sad. Just wait a few years; I’ll betcha at least one of them will write a tell all “mommie dearest” type book when they reach adulthood.
Is that A-Rod’s track suit, or why is it nine inches too long?
It seems to me that Madonna is seen out and about plenty with her children, especially Lola. I don’t think that restricting her children’s TV viewing habits have as much to do with controlling what they see, as much as it does with how they spend their time. That is the way her father raised her as well. Too bad more parents don’t follow suit, instead of using the TV as a babysitter, as most American families do.
If anyone has seen the Madonna documentary “I’m Going to Tell you a Secret”, you would see that Lourdes speaks fluent French, and she talks about a day visiting a hospital and reading books to terminally ill children. This seems like a very well rounded young lady to me. If Madonna’s children reflect what kind of parent she is, then it certainly seems as if she’s doing a phenomenal job, and she should be applauded!
Dang it, I’m torn. Both approaches work well, as far as parenting goes, it seems to me. Take care of what your kids eat, and watch on TV, expose them to a bit of culture (the languages thing) and I can see Guy being icky about that. And some kids ARE sensitive to some kinds of foods – I’d certainly be on top of that. I think women are traditionally more concerned about that kind of thing, whereas men seem to be more “ah, I ate dirt and I’m fine!”.
On the other hand, sometimes lolling about, enjoying the “unhealthy” things, etc., can’t be all that bad either. It’s the constant focus on extremes and on one end of a range that’s a problem. Anyway…
“Guy also hopes domestic staff will be able to chronical how Madonna was too controlling over the children’s macrobiotic diet and banning them from watching TV and reading newspapers.”
How freakishly Orwellian for a woman who was the archetypal rebel 30 years ago. Big Brother is watching you . . .
If you ask me, I think they both weren’t the best of parents (like we are any better) and they both threw the kids to the nanny.
And I bet you any money, although Madonna may have been very much self absorbed into herself and her career, she did foot the bill on the nannies and made sure them kids were well taken care of.
Sure we cannot exactly agree with that macrobiotic diet, but we can agree on taking our kids to Mcdonalds and filling them up with high calorie, high fat, sugar congested foods, like that’s any better.
I think it is best for them kids to stay with their mother, do not split them up.
~Master Psychic Rachel~
of course feeding children lollies and ice cream aren’t one of the 10 commandments, but over-the-top bans won’t “prevent bad eating habits” either. Its thoroughly established that overly restrictive diets are associated with binge eating anyway
so great to see that people are seeing the sense in ‘everything in moderation’
its highly doubtful that she’s implementing these things purely for the childrens sake anyway, i agree with the notion of control issues and paranoia
:madonna is a nut case