Guy Ritchie's back with his boys

Rocco, eight, and three-year-old David flew into London after spending some time with their mother. Ritchie, 40, hugged Rocco before picking up David in his arms and carrying the boy - adopted from an orphanage in Malawi - through the arrivals lounge.

Ritchie and Madonna are engaged in an increasingly acrimonious divorce battle about the boys' future as well as the singer's estimated £300million fortune. Ritchie may be entitled to as much as half the money but there is also a behind-the-scenes row brewing over where the children should live.

Ritchie wants his sons to stay in Britain - the couple have homes in London and Wiltshire. But Madonna, 50, is said to want a move back to the US, where the father of her daughter Lourdes is living.

Madonna is on the north American leg of a world tour, playing Las Vegas over the weekend before moving on to Denver tomorrow night.

Photographs taken over the weekend show her looking pale and gaunt after leaving a kabbalah meeting - a form of Jewish spiritualism which she practises - in Beverly Hills. Wearing sunglasses and with a black cap pulled tightly over her hair, she suffered a coughing fit that has led to suggestions she is feeling the strain of the divorce.

In contrast, Ritchie, a successful film director with career earnings of £30 million, looked the picture of health as he met his sons at Gatwick. He was seen smiling and clearly delighted to be reunited with the boys. Ritchie is currently directing his own version of Sherlock Holmes with a cast that includes Robert Downey Jr as Holmes and Jude Law as Dr Watson.

One source on the film set said today: "Guy is looking great at the moment. He's chirpy with everyone and is really powering on with Sherlock Holmes - he's as passionate about his work as ever.

"You would never know he was going through what seems to be a very bitter divorce. He actually appears to be relieved it is all out in the open."

Ritchie has hired one of Britain's leading divorce lawyers, Helen Ward, to act for him in the divorce. She secured the biggest-ever payout by a British court - £48million to Beverley Charman after her split from her husband John.

Lady Ward, the wife of Lord Justice Ward, is said to be working day and night on the case. She has brought in Stephen Cobb QC, Britain's leading expert on international divorce cases where the country of residence of the children is disputed.

Madonna has engaged Fiona Shackleton, the solicitor who represented Sir Paul McCartney in his £25million divorce from Heather Mills.

Ms Shackleton so irked Ms Mills that the former glamour model threw water over the lawyer at the end of the case.

However the split between Ritchie and Madonna is much more complicated than the McCartney-Mills divorce.

They have been married for eight years, a relatively long time for a celebrity marriage, while only last year Madonna signed a $120million record deal, one of the biggest ever, to which Ritchie could lay claim to as much as half.