Afternoon:
10°c
Madonna is home with a lot of (emotional) baggage
Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter23 Dec 2008
Madonna returned to London today at the end of a world tour - and with so much baggage she had to hire a truck to bring it from the airport.
The pop star, who has just given her ex-husband Guy Ritchie a near £50million divorce pay-off, arrived at her house in Marylebone in time for Christmas.
As Madonna was coming home, Ritchie was leaving with their children Rocco, eight, and David, three, who they adopted in 2006.
It is thought Ritchie was taking the boys to the country.
Meanwhile the large truck also pulled up at the garage of the house and luggage just kept coming off it. Madonna completed the final leg of her world tour in Sao Paulo in Brazil on Sunday night.
It is likely to be a tricky Christmas in the household. A war has been waged over precisely who got what of Madonna's estimated £300 million fortune.
Sources close to the singer say Ritchie received between £41million and £47 million in cash and property while Ritchie has told friends he received just under £14 million in cash as well as Ashcombe House in Wiltshire, one of the finest of country homes.
Madonna's people value Ashcombe House at around £23 million. It has been reported that Ritchie, 40, a film director with his own personal fortune, has banned Madonna, 50, from Christmas celebrations at Ashcombe, although this has not been confirmed.
While the couple have settled their divorce, there remain ongoing legal negotiations over their children with both sets of divorce lawyers working "flat out" to come to a settlement.
It is thought Madonna eventually plans to live permanently in New York but cannot take her two sons with her unless by permission of either Ritchie or an English court. The matter is complicated further by the fact that personal trainer Carlos Leon, the father of Madonna's daughter Lourdes, 11, lives in New York.
Their "quickie" divorce had been praised as a model of civility, especially following the acrimonious, drawn-out split between Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills. But now cracks are beginning to appear. Perhaps there is too much emotional baggage after all.
