LONDON: Pop superstar Madonna and her British husband Guy Ritchie were on November

21 granted a ‘quickie’ divorce on the grounds of his unreasonable behaviour, a month after announcing their eight-year marriage was over.

District Judge Caroline Reid pronounced the decree nisi at the High Court’s Family Division in London during a hearing which lasted barely a minute and was not attended by the couple or their lawyers.

The case — Ciccone ML vs Ritchie GS — was dealt with as British newspapers reported film director Ritchie would receive no money under an agreed settlement.

Ritchie has expressed relief at the speed of the divorce and stressed that access to the couple’s children and not money was the biggest issue for him, the Daily Mirror reported on Friday.

“Thank God,” the paper quoted him as saying. “It was never about money — never about her bloody art collection. I just wanted to settle it and move on... I didn’t raise any objections at any stage until she insisted the children lived permanently in New York.” He is worth an estimated £30 million ($45 million) compared to Madonna’s £300 million fortune.

The couple’s two sons, eight-year-old Rocco and David Banda, three, will split their time between Britain and the US, the Mirror and other papers said. Madonna’s 12-year-old daughter Lourdes, from a previous relationship with fitness trainer Carlos Leon, is set to stay with her mother in the US.

At Friday’s brief court hearing, a legal clerk read out a list of 17 couples including Madonna and Ritchie, after which judge Reid pronounced the decree.

A decree nisi is a provisional decree of divorce and must be followed by a decree absolute about six weeks later which legally dissolves the marriage and means that the couple are free to marry other people.