Ritchie married Madonna at Skibo Castle in Scotland on 22nd December 2000. They had a son, Rocco (11th August 2000), and they adopted a baby boy from Malawi named David. Following his marriage to Madonna, Ritchie began focusing his filmmaking on his famous wife. He directed her in a music video for the song “What it Feels Like for a Girl”. The video was controversial and featured violent behaviour against men, including a shot where she tasers a man, drives a car through a group of men, and incinerates a man by throwing a lighter into a pool of gasoline.
Their big film together was the romantic comedy Swept Away (2002). It was a remake of the 1974 film of the same name. Ritchie cast Madonna as rich socialite Amber Leighton. One day, Amber's wealthy but passive husband (Tony) takes her on a cruise from Greece to Italy, but Amber is unimpressed and takes out her anger on the ship’s first mate, Giuseppe (Adriano Giannini). During the trip, a storm destroys the boat and Amber and Giuseppe end up on a deserted island. Does it sound bad? It was. The film was a critical and commercial failure and won a number of awards at the 2002 Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture, Worst Actress (Madonna), Worst Screen Couple, Worst Remake and Worst Director (Guy Ritchie).
During his marriage to Madonna, Ritchie followed the religion Kabbalah and regularly went to services at the Kabbalah Centre, which his former wife is heavily involved in. The couple were formally divorced in 2008. A friend said, “They were both very calm. Madonna told Guy, ‘I’m sorry, I want a divorce’. And he agreed. It was quite painless but very sad.” There were rumours that Madonna's desire to adopt another child had been a source of friction, as well as her wish to spend more time in America. Some say that Ritchie's snoring also had something to do with it, but those rumours are uncorroborated. He's currently married to model Jacqui Aninsley.
Guy Ritchie quotes
“I can understand that the whole world is interested in my wife Madonna. That’s even why I married her.”
“Creatively, we like the same sort of things, so it just makes sense to work together.” (on working with wife Madonna).
“The best thing to do is find one person in your life and try to love them unconditionally. If you’ve accomplished that, you’ve accomplished a lot.”
“I got into film-making because I was interested in making entertaining movies, which I felt there was a lack of.”