Madonna Denies Marriage Is Splitting Up

NEW YORK (AP) -- Madonna is squashing suggestions that her marriage may be ending.

AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file

Madonna is squashing rumors that her marriage to director Guy Ritchie is over. "I am delighted to confirm that Mr. and Mrs. Guy Ritchie remain happily married," the pop star's spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, said in a statement Monday, March 17, 2008.

"I am delighted to confirm that Mr. and Mrs. Guy Ritchie remain happily married," the pop star's spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, said in a statement Monday.

The news media and blogosphere have been speculating on the couple's status; on Monday, the British newspaper The Sun published a gossipy article on its Web site with the headline: "Madge's marriage `hangs by a thread.'"

Ritchie, 39, attended neither Madonna's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week nor her star-studded United Nations fundraiser in early February.

Rosenberg explained that, until recently, Madonna, 49, and Ritchie were living in separate countries: The Material Girl toured the U.S. to promote her upcoming album "Hard Candy," while the director was stationed in England putting the finishing touches on his new film "RocknRolla," filming a Nike commercial and "working on several scripts."

Today, the Ritchies are "joyfully back together at home in London. All is well and wonderful in the Ritchie household," Rosenberg said.

The couple have a son, Rocco, 7, and Madonna has a daughter, Lourdes, 11. In 2006, they began raising a Malawian boy they want to adopt.