And The Fight Begins

Madonna is building an extraordinary divorce case against Guy Ritchie, claiming he was a cruel and verbally-abusive husband who would belittle and ridicule her in front of others.

Lawyers for the singer, who was widely believed to be the dominant partner in the marriage, are putting together a dossier of incidents.

They include allegations that he told her she 'looked like a granny' on stage compared with her younger backing dancers. He is also alleged to have declared that she could not act, and was 'past it' after she turned 50.

Her lawyers say that 40-year-old Ritchie's comments made Madonna feel worthless, unattractive, unfeminine, insecure and isolated during their eight-year marriage.

The Mail has learned that Madonna's case will chronicle how she first fell for Ritchie because she felt he was a challenge and that he was tough enough to stand up to her.

However, she apparently soon started to become affected by her husband's alleged put- downs which eventually started to eat away at her legendary confidence.

A source close to the couple told the Mail: 'It might seem incredible that Madonna should be suggesting Guy was the dominant one in this marriage and that she was somehow the belittled party. But the thing about divorce is that there are always two very different perceptions of what went on.

'It frequently happens when the wife sits down with her legal team and starts working out a strategy to build a picture of the husband being some kind of unreasonable belligerent monster.

'The lawyers concentrate on a few regrettable incidents or exchanges and form a picture of the husband based just on that and all the good times are forgotten.

'In this case, Guy has come out rather badly. They concentrate on the belittling comments Guy has made to Madonna. There were times where he would ridicule her humour and say how Americans had no sense of humour.

'He would laugh sarcastically at her jokes and take the mickey out of her in front of other people. Also brought up are times when they went out for a meal where Madonna would accuse him of eyeing up a waitress.

DailyMail