It would be wrong to jeer, especially when there are children involved. But the news of Madonna's divorce from Guy Ritchie will cheer up a great many people in these dark, pinched times.

It's not that any celebrity marriage deserves to fail. It's just that the dissolution of a marriage in which Madonna is a partner is a cheering reminder that there are limits to the lengths to which naked ambition, iron control, ruthless self-aggrandisement, a penchant for kabbalah and the pursuit of the body beautiful can get you. An awful lot of young women used to model themselves on Madonna. Older now, they may do so just that little bit less now it seems that her trademark habits are precisely what may have put off her put-upon husband. It seems the worm that was Mr Guy Ritchie turned when he found that Madonna intended to defer the announcement of their divorce for a time convenient for her US tour.

The best bit of the reports was the revelation that Ritchie had had it up to here with his wife's four-hour-a-day gym habit. Four hours.

Male readers may not know this, but women have been told for an awfully long time about Madge's fitness routine. Celebrity trainers and workout routines were routinely peddled to a gullible female public on the strength of her imprimatur. Some of it was, of course, intended to keep her fit for her gruelling stage tours. But in so far as it was intended to make her physically attractive at home, it backfired. Ritchie, who sounds like a sane sort of person, was repelled, not attracted by that degree of obsession. It produced a toned physique - and it's hard to look at the woman's biceps without feeling that batwing arms are preferable - but at a price.

As a “close friend” of the couple told one paper: “Madonna is obsessed with trying to look years younger than her real age.” So it wasn't the age difference between the couple that was the problem - she is ten years his senior - but her angst-ridden efforts to disguise her age. The valuable lesson of all this for other women is that what magazines tell you men like, and what men actually like, are two different things.

The real interest of the break-up, though, is whether Ritchie will claim the share of his wife's fortune to which he is legally entitled. Alimony is one thing when the beneficiary is the wife of a rich man, quite another if the claimant is a man. But Ritchie can claim to have subordinated his career to his wife's and helped to raise their child. If he wins custody of their son and an equal share of her assets, it would do more to advance the principles of equality than his wife's entire career.

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