Madonna is divorcing Ritchie official

The couple married in 2000.

The announcement of the divorce of Madonna, 50, and Ritchie, 40 comes after months of rumours that the London-based couple planned to split.

Friends said Madonna, 50, reportedly wanted to wait until next year to announce their separation after her Sticky and Sweet tour was finished.

But she and director Rtichie, 40, decided they wanted the divorce finalised before Christmas.

News of the spilt was leaked to The Sun newspaper in London yesterday.

It reported both parties had talked to divorce lawyers to ensure the break-up was as amicable as possible as far back as June.

Madonna, believed to be worth about $650 million, was said to have taken advice from Fiona Shackleton, Sir Paul McCartney's counsel in his divorce from Heather Mills.

Ritchie has been talking to a London firm Forsters, although a company representative said yesterday: "We have no involvement at the moment."

If there is no pre-nuptial pact, Ritchie stands to get up to $120 million, but friends said the couple has made the welfare of their children their three priority.

Madonna and Ritchie married in December 2000 at Skibo Castle in northeast Scotland. They met at a party hosted by ex-Police frontman Sting and his wife Trudie Styler in 1998.

Their son, Rocco, was several months old on their wedding day, and in 2006 Madonna applied to adopt David Banda, a boy from Malawi whose mother died shortly after his birth. The adoption was approved by a Malawian court in May.

Madonna also has a daughter, Lourdes, from an earlier relationship. She was married once before, to Hollywood actor Sean Penn, in the 1980s.

Madonna is one of the most successful rock stars of all time, with global album sales estimated at more than 200 million copies. A multi-Grammy award winner, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March.

Ritchie is best known for his movies Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000), but he has come in for critical maulings since then, most notably when he directed Madonna in the box-office flop Swept Away (2002).

Via news.com.au