Madonna And Guy Ritchie's Custody Battle Over Their Son Rocco Got Ugly

Madonna and Guy Ritchie were once one of the biggest celebrity power couples and were together for nine years before they got divorced. The two met in 1999 at Trudie Styler's home and quickly fell into a whirlwind romance. Madonna and Ritchie welcomed their first son, Rocco, in August 2000 and got married in Scotland the following December. They later adopted David Banda together from Malawi in 2006.

After eight years of marriage, Madonna and Ritchie announced they were getting a divorce but according to a source, things were strained between them for some time. "It was unraveling throughout the last year. They were living separate lives and coming together every now and then for the cameras," a source told People. The divorce cost the "Material Girl" quite a hefty sum and Richie received $75 million in the settlement. A source told the Daily Mail at the time, "[Ritchie] just wants out, he has had enough of the Madonna circus and he is massively relieved. It was never about the money. The most important things to him are having full access to his kids, whom he adores, and a quiet life." Rocco split his time between Madonna and Ritchie following the divorce but things turned ugly again when he failed to come back to New York after seeing his father.

Madonna and Guy Ritchie's custody battle over Rocco went international. In 2016, Madonna filed a suit that claimed the 15-year-old had been living with her since the divorce but left her Rebel Tour to live with Ritchie in London, per The Guardian. Madonna had previously filed at a New York court and the judge ordered Rocco to return to his mom but he failed to do so. The U.K. judge allowed Madonna to drop the proceedings in England and continue the process in New York but warned the parents, "As I observed during the course of the hearing, summer does not last forever. The boy very quickly becomes the man. It would be a very great tragedy for Rocco if any more of the precious and fast receding days of his childhood were to be taken up by this dispute," per People.

While the proceedings took place, a New York judge and both parties agreed that Rocco would stay in London to remain in school. "No one is disrupting this household. The child is in school; let us try to allow him to go forward in the most normal way. We're not forcing the child to leave school. His mother isn't asking that," Judge Deborah Kaplan stated (via People). Madonna and Ritchie were set to appear in court a few months later, but the two were eventually able to settle out of court.

After a long and arduous battle over Rocco, Madonna and Guy Ritchie were able to come to an agreement over their son. As reported by Page Six, Ritchie's attorney Peter Bronstein stated, "The case is settled and everyone agrees that Rocco's needs changed and he's going to be living with dad. Everyone's agreed to that and there's no further need for any kind of a court case." While Madonna has stayed silent regarding the custody issue, she took to social media to seemingly lash out with a picture of herself and the word "b**** written across her body.

Madonna shared with Vanity Fair that she considers her children's successes the "biggest medal" but admitted, "Even today, I struggle to understand how to be a mother and do my job. Because, however it goes, whoever you are, having children and raising children is a work of art. And nobody gives you a manual. You have to learn from your mistakes. It's a job that takes a lot of time. And it's tiring because there's never rest." Madonna's relationship with Rocco seems to be doing well and he was spotted leaving her New York City apartment after being hospitalized for a bacterial infection. As for Ritchie, Madonna stated in a YouTube video that a decision she now regrets is, "Getting married. Both times."