A New York judge called on Madonna and her ex-husband Guy Ritchie to settle a bitter dispute over their son Rocco that was forcing the teenager to live his life in the “glare of the spotlight”.
Justice Deborah Kaplan addressed both parents over a speakerphone during a hearing in the Manhattan Supreme Court. She said: “While the parties here quite frequently have chosen to live their lives in a very public way, it’s clear to me that your child, the subject child here, does not.” She added: “He’s communicated that sentiment strongly to his lawyer.”
Rocco, the elder of their two sons, went to stay with his father in London when Madonna’s global tour passed through Britain in December. He has remained there in spite of entreaties from his mother to return to New York and in defiance of an order Justice Kaplan made a few days before Christmas.
Lawyers for both parents said that they had been attempting to reach an agreement but these efforts fell through on Tuesday in part because of a dispute over where the matter could be settled. Peter Bronstein, the lawyer for Mr Ritchie, said that sealed papers had been filed with a court in England and proceedings there could “mirror” those of the court in New York. Eleanor Alter, Madonna’s attorney, rejected this claim.
So it was that lawyers for both sides, along with an attorney for their son, gathered in Manhattan as the judge dialled in to a telephone conference call with Madonna and Mr Ritchie. The singer’s exact whereabouts are unknown but her world tour reached Singapore last Sunday and she is due in Auckland, New Zealand, on Saturday.
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While a private hearing is due to take place in London today, Justice Kaplan said the matter had to be resolved in New York under the terms of their divorce in 2009. “We were coming very, very close to a global resolution that would take the child out of this unending spotlight,” she said. Lawyers for Mr Ritchie, Madonna and their son are now due back in court on June 1.