Ritchie turns down Madonna’s £20m offer

It doesn't look like Madonna and Guy Ritchie's divorce is going be an uncomplicated affair. According to the singer's biographer, J Randy Taraborrelli, the pair are said to be rowing over where their children - Rocco, seven, and adopted David Banda, three - will live and be educated, and Ritchie is said to have turned down flat a one-off settlement offer of £20 million made by the singer.

Taraborrelli has told Hello! magazine that Madonna, 50, wants the two boys to live with her and Lourdes, her 12-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, in New York. But Ritchie, 40, is said to prefer that the children go to school in London.

Said Taraborrelli: "There was a great deal of haggling about this matter last week, with Madonna upping the amount of Guy's settlement to more than £20million in hopes that he would acquiesce." He added that they are "not even speaking to each other. They communicate only through lawyers".

Taraborrelli, who appears to be acting as an unofficial spokesman for Madonna, also said that the two now have very few friends in common. A source is said to have told him: "Madonna was never very fond of Guy's pals. She found them uninteresting and dull. She even used the word 'common' to describe them. And for his part, Guy always felt the conversation was forced and pretentious with many of Madonna's friends."

Meanwhile, it appears that Ritchie did not take his wife's Kabbalah religion as seriously as everyone supposed. The film director has stopped an order for specially blessed "Kaballah water" that was destined to fill the pool of the couple's Wiltshire estate, despite the fact the cancelled order could cost him as much as £10,000.

A source told the Daily Mirror: "He [Ritchie] partly blames Kabbalah for the deterioration of their marriage, so the last thing he wants is an Olympic pool-sized reminder of the religion."