NEED TO KNOW
- Madonna recalled “sobbing” every night amid her custody battle over her son Rocco
- During the Monday, Sept. 29 episode of Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, the pop icon said it felt like “the end of the world”
- Madonna and Guy Ritchie were in a months-long custody battle over Rocco began in December 2015
Madonna opened up about how difficult it was for her during her custody battle with ex-husband Guy Ritchie.
During the Monday, Sept. 29 episode of Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, the seven-time Grammy winner recalled “sobbing” every night amid her months-long custody battle over her son Rocco.
“Probably one of the most painful moments in my life where I honestly couldn’t see the forest through the trees was when I went through a custody battle with my son,” Madonna, 67, told the podcaster, 38.
She added, “And even though my marriage didn’t work out, I mean, a lot of people’s marriages don’t work out. They marry the wrong people, they’re not aligned, they’re not meant for each other. Someone trying to take my child away from me was like…they might as well just kill me. That’s really how I was thinking.”
At the time, Madonna was on tour, which was even more challenging.
“I had to go on stage every night. I would just be lying on the floor of my dressing room, sobbing. I really thought it was like it was the end of the world. I couldn’t take it. I just couldn’t take it,” she said.
Beginning in December 2015, Madonna and Ritchie, 57, were involved in a transatlantic custody squabble for eight months over their then 15-year-old son Rocco, who quit traveling with his mom on her Rebel Heart Tour to live with his dad in the U.K.
The former couple — who were married from 2000 to 2008 — settled their legal battle in June 2016, and there was “no appearance” in court regarding the matter, according to New York Supreme Court documents.
Per the Associated Press, Ritchie’s lawyer, Peter Bronstein, gave a statement outside the court that Rocco, then 16, would continue to live in London. Madonna’s attorney declined to comment at the time.
In December 2015, a judge ordered that Ritchie return Rocco to Madonna in New York; however, Rocco continued to live in England.
By March 2016, a New York judge ruled that Rocco would stay in the U.K. with his father and attend school while urging his parents to settle the battle out of court.
By June, the custody battle appeared to come to a close, as court documents listed the case as “motion pending.”
Madonna has six children: Lourdes, 28; Rocco, 25; David, 20; Mercy, 19; and twins Stella and Estere, 13.
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