The star’s biographer, J. Randy Taraborrelli, said that the couple were “no closer” to reaching any agreement.  He said the main stumbling block is where the couple’s children will live and be educated.

The breakdown in the marriage of 50-year-old Madonna and her film director husband was first made public two weeks ago.

The pair are in dispute over where their children children Rocco, seven, and adopted David Banda, three, will be based.  Madonna wants them to live with her and her daughter Lourdes, 12, in New York, while Ritchie wants them educated in England.  Mr Taraborrelli told Hello! magazine the pair “are at loggerheads”.

He said: “There was a great deal of haggling about this matter last week, with Madonna upping the amount of Guy’s settlement to more than £20million in hope that he would acquiesce.” He said : “They are not even speaking to each other. They communicate only through lawyers”.

Mr Taraborrelli also said a friend of Ritchie told him that the break-up could become more acrimonious
The source told him: “I do think it’s going to get nasty. He and Madonna are very angry now, no doubt about it but they are willing to put that aside for their children.

“But I do think that if one sees the other linked up with a new partner so soon, it will make everything a lot more complicated for everyone involved.”

It was claimed that the couple’s lawyers are seeking witness statements from business and house staff.

The singer has hired Fiona Shackleton, who represented Sir Paul McCartney in his divorce from Heather Mills.

Ritchie is using the services of Helen Ward, who secured Britain’s highest divorce settlement of £48million for Beverley Charman from Sevenoaks, Kent when she was divorced from her husband, the insurance tycoon John Charman.

Mr Taraborrelli also said the pair now have very few friends in common.

A source told him: “Madonna was never very fond of Guy’s pals. She found them uninteresting and dull.”

Mr Taraborrelli added that Madonna had shrugged off remarks made by her father-in-law John Ritchie last week.

He is said to have branded the singer “beastly”.

“He never liked me,” she is reported to have said, “but… whatever.”

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