Article from: Sun Mail

October 19, 2008 12:30am

POP star Madonna is building an extraordinary bitter divorce case against Guy Ritchie, claiming he was a cruel and verbally abusive husband.

She claims he would belittle and ridicule her in front of others.

Lawyers for the pop star, who was widely believed to be the dominant partner in the marriage, are putting together a dossier of incidents for the looming British court battle.

They include allegations that he told her she "looked like a granny" on stage compared with her younger backing dancers.

He is also alleged to have said she could not act, and was "past it" now that she had turned 50.

Madonna's lawyers say 40-year-old Ritchie's comments made Madonna feel worthless, unattractive, unfeminine, insecure and isolated during their eight-year marriage.

Legal sources say Madonna's case will chronicle how she first fell for Ritchie because she felt he was a challenge and was tough enough to stand up to her. 

However, she apparently soon started to become affected by her husband's alleged put-downs, which eventually started to eat away at her legendary confidence.

A source close to the couple revealed: "It might seem incredible that Madonna should be suggesting Guy was the dominant one in this marriage and that she was somehow the belittled party. But the thing about divorce is that there are always two very different perceptions of what went on.

"In this case, Guy has come out rather badly. They concentrate on the belittling comments Guy has made to Madonna.

"There were times where he would ridicule her and say how Americans had no sense of humour. He would laugh sarcastically at her jokes and take the mickey out of her in front of other people.

"Outwardly she's the Material Girl and bursting with confidence, but turning 50 really hit her hard.

"Madonna says Guy never said the right things to get her over that hurdle. She says he basically let her know that he thought she was over the hill.

"She is alleging he would tell her that she really should give up the live touring and that she looked like a granny compared to the nubile youngsters dancing with her on stage."

The extraordinary dossier has come to light as the pair prepare to slug it out over access to their children – their son, Rocco, 8, her daughter from a previous relationship, Lourdes, 12, and the couple's adopted Malawian child, David Banda, 2.

Ritchie is fighting for custody of Rocco.

But a British judge is likely to rule that the children should not be split from one another – or their mother – without a very good reason.

Madonna is adamant that the children should grow up in New York.

Rumours about the relationship intensified in Cannes a few months ago when it emerged that Madonna and Ritchie

were sleeping in separate hotel rooms, and communicating only via their assistants.

Friends of Ritchie suggested Madonna's irrational food fads and increasingly bizarre attempts to hold back time – via surgery, exercise and every therapy – were forcing the knockabout British film director out of her life.

They asked how anyone could expect Ritchie, a macho man who is fond of the pub and likes to shoot pheasant, to dine contentedly every night on organic food?

And how was he supposed to react when his wife took to retiring at night slathered in $1000-a-jar skin cream and covered in a plastic bodysuit to hold back the signs of ageing?

Ritchie's friends claim every aspect of life at the couple's London residence was dictated by the lady of the house.

Madonna, who embraced a macrobiotic diet in the early 1990s, told her chefs what was permitted; she chose the precise blend of Colombian coffee; and tutted over the exact provenance of air-freighted blueberries from Canada.

Ritchie allegedly had to endure a life married to a tiny domestic tyrant whose rules apparently included no TV, no newspapers and no welcome for his "London" friends – all on a diet which would make a Hollywood starlet feel faint.

Gossips claim he had to drink his tea every day with rice milk, as dairy was banned.

Meat was only very occasionally present on the menu. The only exception to this was at their country estate, Ashcombe House in Wiltshire, where Ritchie was allowed to serve a full breakfast to shooting parties, even including such fat-filled items as steak-and-kidney pie.

Madonna thought this kind of food so foul that she would leave the room in disgust when it arrived and sip reproachfully at her bowl of Japanese miso soup.

Ritchie apparently used to complain that she was giving the children an unhealthy attitude towards food.

She banned sugar, which made biscuits, ice cream and cakes out of bounds for Lourdes and Rocco.

She also banned cheese, cream, salt and preservatives.

Madonna's exercise routine – never less than two hours a day, six days a week – rules her life.

Ritchie's friends say he pleaded with her to do less and spend time with him and the children, but she refused.

"I'm not going to slow down, get off this ride, stay home and get fat," she told a magazine.

"There are no shortcuts to being Madonna."

Article from: Daily Telegraph

October 20, 2008 10:50am

MADONNA'S manic obsession with her body image is being blamed for breaking up her marriage to Guy Ritchie.

As their relationship went into meltdown the musclebound singer insisted on sticking to her four-hour daily exercise regime despite Ritchie's pleas they should spend more time together.

Madonna says Guy Ritichie told her she looked like a granny

Madonna, Ritchie in child deal

Madonna confirms divorce decision

It meant the film director went 18 months without having sex with his wife, according to the News of the World. And on the rare occasions they did make love, he told friends it was like cuddling up to a piece of gristle.

"He got more and more frustrated as she spent nearly half the day working out," a pal of Ritchie's told the paper.