Madonna and Guy Ritchie Announce Divorce

After seven years of marriage and countless rumors, Madonna's spokesperson announced today that the singer and her husband, director Guy Ritchie, have agreed to divorce. The statement was co-signed by representatives of both Madonna and Ritchie. The pair have not agreed on a settlement on their combined $525 million worth, the majority of which is the Material Girl's. The couple had two children, Rocco and David Banda, who was adopted from Malawi in 2006. Rumors of an imminent split have been a gossip page favorite for the past few years but reached a crescendo in July with allegations that Madonna was having an affair with New York Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez. While Madonna and Ritchie initially denied the rumors, it ultimately felled A-Rod's own marriage. Madonna is currently in the throes of her Sticky & Sweet Tour, while Ritchie is lensing Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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