Madonna’s Custody Battle: (Almost) Home For Christmas
Madonna Battles With Guy Ritchie To Keep Custody Of Son, Rocco
There’s just one problem: Rocco doesn’t want to live with his mom in the Big Apple. The 15-year-old been staying in London with his film director dad and has apparently decided that he doesn’t want to leave. In the words of Eric Buckley, Rocco’s lawyer,
“He has expressed very clearly that he does not want to return to New York.”
But that’s too bad, Rocco, because your mother has decided to veto your Christmas wishes — Wednesday’s ruling from Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Deborah Kaplan has ordered you come home for Christmas. Well, actually, after Christmas. For school.
Madonna And Rocco: Oceans Apart
Despite the teen’s supposed objections, there’s not much he can do in the matter — especially if he’s really serious about living with his dad. If the court is going to change the primary residential parent, the litigation has to take place in the state where Maddona and Ritchie’s divorce was filed. And New York isn’t even in on the same continent as London, so, that kind of means Rocco has to come home.
But the fact that he’s trying to refuse kind of makes one wonder what the deal is with his mother-son relationship. According the friends of ex-husband Guy Ritchie, Madonna was difficult to live with over the course of their eight years of marriage. Honestly, based on how she treats Rocco on Instagram, imagining Madonna as an intolerable housemate isn’t a crazy stretch.
Rocco is 15 years old — which is about the age that many teens start feeling angst towards their parents. And it’s probably safe to assume that things aren’t somehow better when your parent is a pop music icon. If you have a mom who embarrasses you, just feel better knowing that Rocco’s embarrasses him more. For example:
If Rocco’s less-than-pleased face in that photo doesn’t quite convince you that his relationship with his mom is something of a teen nightmare, get a load of this ‘gram:
Rocco”s preferred profile #nosausage
A video posted by Madonna (@madonna) on
Maybe this is just me, but I’d feel at least a little embarrassed if my own mom posted a picture of me captioned with “#nosausage.” And if my mom had as many followers as Madonna, it’s possible that I’d consider fleeing across an ocean too.
Rocco’s Return: “Should I Stay, Or Should I Go?”
In spite of Rocco’s lawyer’s best efforts to keep him where he supposedly wants to be, with his dad in London, the boy is still just a minor and therefore subject to the custody terms from his parents’ divorce. If he wants to stay in London, he’ll have to figure out the details under the stewardship of Madonna. This much was made clear by Justice Kaplan:
“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.”
Still, the situation wasn’t a total loss for Rocco. Madonna wanted him home for the holidays and he’s not legally required to come back to the States until school’s back in session. Hopefully he’s been spending his last few days in London making the most of things and not locked in his room weeping gently to emo music — although the latter option seems much more fitting for a 15-year-old.
Child Custody: Battle Like Madonna
One thing we have to remember when reading into celebrities’ personal lives is that we get all of our information through sensationalist media. Who knows how Rocco and Madonna really feel about each other? No matter how you slice it, us normies aren’t privy to the whole story. For all we know, Rocco’s wish to stay in London might not even be based in sound reasoning.
So, regardless of right and wrong in this particular situation, we can maybe all agree on one good lesson Madonna has demonstrated: when you’re the primary residential parent and feel the need to take action, you can and should do so. Courts are extremely cautious when determining which parent in a divorce case should have full custody of a child. Madonna was designated primary residential parent and that means that the state of New York deemed her capable of making decisions in Rocco’s best interest.
Again, I’m not defending Madonna’s intentions here. We don’t know what they are. What I am defending is her doing exactly what a primary residential parent should do in her situation: initiating a productive response to a complicated circumstance, and ensuring the court’s endorsement before taking drastic actions.
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