November 22, 2008	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 23, 1429

LONDON: A British judge granted pop megastar Madonna and her British filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie a divorce on Friday, barely a month after they announced the end of their eight-year marriage.

District Judge Caroline Reid pronounced the decree nisi in the “quickie,” or uncontested, divorce at the family division of the High Court in London. The case, listed as Ciccone M L v Ritchie G S, was among 17 cases read out by a court clerk.

Judge Reid then asked if anyone wished to show cause against the decrees, or raise the question of costs, before saying: “I therefore pronounce the decrees.” Neither Madonna nor Ritchie attended the hearing, which lasted barely a minute, something they are not required to do under British law.

Madonna, 50, and Ritchie, 40, announced in mid-October that they were to divorce nearly eight years after they married in a lavish ceremony at a Scottish castle in December 2000.

The couple have an eight-year-old son, Rocco, and a three-year-old son adopted in Malawi, David Banda. Madonna also has a daughter, 12-year-old Lourdes, by her former fitness trainer Carlos Leon.

—AFP