A British judge says it will be a “tragedy” if Madonna and her ex-husband Guy Ritchie don’t resolve their custody battle over 15-year-old son Rocco.
Judge Alistair MacDonald says Rocco is a “very great credit” to his parents, and it would be best if both can spend time with him.
“It would be a very great tragedy for Rocco if any more of the precious and fast-receding days of his childhood were to be taken up by this dispute,” he said.
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Madonna and Ritchie divorced in 2008. Madonna wants Rocco, who currently lives with his father in England, to return to her custody in the U.S.
Rocco left his mother’s Rebel Heart world tour at the end of last year to visit his father in London and remained there.
Madonna launched legal action in the U.S. and Britain, but later asked to halt the British proceedings. MacDonald agreed Monday that she could, so its expected that the singer will continue pursuing the case in New York.
MacDonald’s words echo the plea from New York judge Deborah Kaplan, who earlier this month called on the singer and director to reach an agreement. She told both parties: “No one is disrupting his household other than the inability of the parents to reach a resolution.”
Neither Ritchie nor Madonna was in court on Monday when the judge handed down his ruling. Lawyers told MacDonald that both parties had outlined proposals for negotiation.
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Things have been volatile for the Queen of Pop lately. After a string of late appearances and bizarre on-stage antics during Madonna’s Australian concert leg, things reached uncomfortable levels when the pop icon invited a woman onstage and proceeded to pull her corset top down, exposing her breast to thousands of concertgoers.
With files from The Associated Press
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