As predicted earlier today, Madonna and Guy Ritchie officially separated. Madonna’s publicist, Liz Rosenberg, issued a statement saying the couple decided to end their seven and half year marriage, but have yet to decide on a settlement.

“Guy Ritchie is responsible for wanting this divorce now,” a source tells Usmagazine.com. “He didn’t want to wait to break the news, it had gone on along enough. This marriage was over a long time ago.”

Another insider tells Us: “All her friends and family have known all along. They had to keep it under wraps and really tried to work things out. They tried for years, actually.

“They thought their belief in Kabbalah could help,” the source adds, “but it’s unfortunately hard for Madonna to hold on to anybody in her life. Thank God she has the kids.”

“Despite huge attempts to patch things up, they both knew deep down that divorce was in the cards. It wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when.’ They tried hard over the past few months, but their fighting was getting out of control.

“The final straw came before Madonna started her U.S. tour.”

Though Madonna wanted to wait to announce their split until after her global “Sticky and Sweet” tour, their fighting got so bad that Ritchie just wanted out, according to the Sun. Madonna finally agreed.

Sources estimate Guy could end up with $100 to $300 million in the divorce settlement.

Madonna, meanwhile, has New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez lined up to take Guy’s place. A source claimed the two “are definitely romantic.”

“Guy is not involved in this equation,” the insider tells Usmagazine.com. “With or without A-Rod, Madonna and Guy haven’t been ‘together’ for over a year - they have been privately separated. Madonna, however, wanted to finish her world tour before divorcing.”

An A-Rod source tells Us, “A-Rod and Madonna are more involved than ever.

“Alex has really missed spending time with Madonna. However, he understands the position Madonna’s in.”

P.S. Everyone thinks “RocknRolla” kind of sucks. Sorry, Guy.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Madonna. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.