British director Guy Ritchie and Madonna have once again been asked by a judge to sort it out over their son's custody battle.
British director Guy Ritchie and Madonna have once again been asked by a judge to sort it out over their son's custody battle.
A British judge has made a fresh plea to pop star Madonna and her film director ex-husband Guy Ritchie to work out an amicable solution to their custody battle over their teenage son.
The Material Girl singer and Sherlock Holmes director, whose litigation over 15-year old Rocco has been takingplace in New York and London, divorced in 2008 and agreed their son would live with the songstress.
But since late last year Rocco has been in London living with Ritchie and in December ignored a New York court order to return to the United States to stay with his mother.
Madonna, 57, issued legal proceedings in the British capital last December but later sought to withdraw them.
At Monday's hearing - which neither Madonna nor Ritchie attended - judge Justice Alistair MacDonald granted the singer permission to end the proceedings in Britain and appealed to both sides to settle the matter, according to a transcript of his judgment.
"... At the root of these proceedings ... is a temporary breakdown in trust. For all the media coverage, comment and analysis, this is a case born out of circumstances that arise for countless separated parents the world over," he said.
"I renew, one final time, my plea for the parents to seek, and to find an amicable resolution to the dispute between them ... It would be a very great tragedy for Rocco if any more of the precious and fast-receding days of his childhood were to be taken up by this dispute."
His appeal echoes that of Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Deborah Kaplan, who earlier this month also urged both sides to work together to resolve the dispute. A hearing in New York was set for June 1.
"It's hilarious to me how much of a big deal it is to everyone, people just need to understand I was on stage in front of Madonna, I was looking her in the eyes and most people would just melt into a pool on stage, so it was only because I was standing in front of her that I looked so surprised," Georgiou told The Courier Mail last week.
The teen also denied claims the incident was staged and insisted she was randomly plucked from the crowd.
