A New York judge has ordered Madonna’s teenage son with Guy Ritchie to return home to New York to spend Christmas with the pop superstar.
A custody battle unfolded in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday morning after Rocco, 15, reportedly refused to board a flight back from London, where he has been spending time with his filmmaker father. Ritchie’s lawyer, Eric Buckley, argued the boy wanted to spend the holidays with his dad, and should be allowed to do so. “He has expressed very clearly that he does not want to return to New York,” Buckley told the court.
Madonna attempted to interject, but was stopped by her legal representative, Eleanor Alter, reports the New York Daily News. Justice Deborah Kaplan subsequently ruled in Madonna’s favour, but suggested Rocco, who will be appointed his own court attorney, discuss his living preferences with both parents.
Meanwhile, the ex-couple has been banned from discussing the legal issue with the teen himself.
“I’m granting you all the relief you have requested,” the judge told the singer, who is based in the Big Apple. “I’m directing the child to be returned to New York. If he wants to stay with his father, he must return to his mother (first).”
Madonna and Ritchie divorced in 2008 after almost eight years of marriage, during which they adopted another son, 10-year-old David Banda.
The Material Girl is also mum to daughters Lourdes Leon, 19, and Mercy James, nine, while Ritchie has three young children with his new wife, model Jacqui Ainsley, who he wed in July.
Madonna recently returned to her Manhattan home after wrapping the European leg of her Rebel Heart World Tour in Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday night, but she suffered a power cut towards the end of the show after overrunning the venue’s curfew. She performed her encore of Holiday a capella and later addressed the issue on Instagram.com, writing, “We don’t stop till its over Glasgow (sic)! Don’t try to silence the Queen.”
She will resume her live shows in Mexico in January.
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