LONDON — Madonna and Guy Ritchie have officially announced their plans to end their nearly eight-year marriage in a statement sent to The Associated Press by the pop star's publicist.
"Madonna and Guy Ritchie have agreed to divorce after seven-and-a-half years of marriage. They have both requested that the media maintain respect for their family at this difficult time," read the brief statement by the singer's rep, Liz Rosenberg.
The statement, which was co-signed by Ritchie's representative, says the couple has yet to agree to a divorce settlement.
"The judgment of the court would be to try and assess what they came in with and divide what they built up fairly equally," said David Allison, an attorney with the London firm Family Law in Partnership, told AP.
News of the couple's breakup first surfaced in Britain's The Sun newspaper, which said the pair was planning to call it quits because they "can't bear to live with the pretence any longer."
The 50-year-old Madonna, who was married to actor-director Sean Penn prior to her nuptials with Ritchie, is currently in the midst of her "Sticky and Sweet" concert tour in the U.S., while Ritchie, 40, has been busy filming "Sherlock Holmes" in France.
Sources told the Sun the couple has been arguing over the amount of time each spends on their individual careers, as well as Madonna's desires to adopt again. Madonna and Ritchie have two children, biological son Rocco, 8, and David, 2, whom they adopted in 2006. The pop star also has a daughter, Lourdes, 12, from a previous relationship with personal trainer Carlos Leon.
"It's very sad. They were a great couple and brilliant parents. They just couldn't live together any more," an insider told the Sun.
"Despite huge attempts to patch things up, they both knew deep down that divorce was in the cards," continued the source. "It wasn't a matter of 'if' but 'when.' They tried hard over the past few months, but their fighting was getting out of control."
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