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Guy Ritchie is expected to take not a penny from Madonna in an effort to avoid unseemly public wrangling over their divorce.

The film director, believed to be worth about £30 million, and the singer, whose fortune is estimated at about ten times that amount, are to be divorced in the High Court in London today. Their case — Ciccone M. L. v Ritchie G. S. — is listed before District Judge Reid under the “quickie” procedure.

In what lawyers yesterday praised as a model divorce, their decree nisi is to be announced at 10am in Court 10 of the Principal Registry of the High Court’s Family Division.

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The hearing is likely to last a matter of minutes and neither party is expected to attend.

Madonna and Ritchie have agreed arrangements for their children. Their two boys — Rocco, 8, and David Banda, 3, are likely to split their time between Britain and the US. Lourdes, 12, Madonna’s child from an earlier relationship, will remain with her.

On hearing the news that the case was due to be dealt with today, Ritchie told the Daily Mirror: “Thank God. It dragged on much too long and that had nothing to do with me. But it was never ever about money.”

Lawyers praised the speed with which the couple had sorted out their affairs and the lack of public acrimony. Joe Vaitilingam, of the family law firm Hughes Fowler Carruthers, said: “If the figures are correct, then Guy Ritchie may well have walked away with substantially less than he was legally entitled to.

“However, the agreement does demonstrate that with commitment on both sides the impact of any divorce, high profile or otherwise, can be minimised for both the parties involved and more importantly their children.

“This is the epitome of how a divorce should be done and it is clearly what both Guy and Madonna wanted.”

Margaret Hatwood, of the law firm Thomas Eggar LLP, said: “They have undoubtedly saved much money in legal costs and have not had to suffer the sort of public scrutiny that the McCartneys went through.”

Ritchie would be following in the footsteps of Billie Piper, who was also praised widely for walking away from her marriage to Chris Evans without taking any of his cash.

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