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Madonna gets the upper hand

Guy loses out in the power struggle of their marriage

Guy Ritchie and Madonna are having a tense time

Last month Guy Ritchie put on a brave face when Madonna left his 40th birthday party at the The Punchbowl pub in Mayfair, west London, at 10pm.

He was able to comfort himself with the thought that even if his wife was less than supportive, at least his film career was taking off. Sadly, it hasn’t quite worked out that way.

Guy's latest movie RocknRolla failed to win over the critics – one even described it as ‘quite supreme self-indulgence’. Funding for a sequel to Guy’s film is now in jeopardy – and that’s left Madonna, 50, more in the driving seat than ever before.

A friend tells Now: ‘Guy’s powerful wife has eclipsed him yet again. His hopes will have to be pinned on the Sherlock Holmes movie he has coming up, but his biggest fear is that his moment has gone and people think he’s old hat. It’s shaken his confidence and he feels his wife can call the shots now.

‘Madonna’s totally focused on her tour and when she’s in work mode nothing can reach her. She’s shown very little interest in what’s going on with Guy.’

It hurts even more because Guy made such an effort in his publicity press junkets to praise his wife and be supportive of her. Friends say he feels put out that she hasn’t done the same in return, even turning up late to the London premiere on 30 August.

Some journalists who interviewed Guy said that he seemed nervous about talking about his family, saying to one reporter who quizzed him about the divorce rumours: ‘I think you’ve just got to love your wife. Is that a boring enough answer?’

One friend says: ‘Guy tells us: “We’ve been through this sort of thing before, but we always come through it in the end.” But if you get him in a certain mood, he admits he feels his wife stepped away from him a long time ago.'

Special photo gallery - Madonna and Guy Ritchie's love story told in pics>> 

Full story in Now magazine dated 13 October 2008 - out now!