Madonna moving forward on divorce with Guy Ritchie?

A new report from UK website Holy Moly, claims that Madonna has hired Britain’s acclaimed divorce lawyer, Nicholas Mostyn QC, to initiate divorce proceedings against her husband of eight years, Guy Ritchie.

Mostyn was Paul McCartney’s lawyer in the drawn out battle with his ex-Heather Mills, and was also in the headlines with other high profile divorce cases including Earl Spencer and Ray Parlour.

The report also indicates that Madonna and Guy do NOT have a pre-nup in place, leaving Guy in line to walk away with up to half of Madge’s fortune (according to Forbes she earned $72m last year alone).

The marriage has been widely reported as being all but over, with some reports suggesting the two had reached an amicable accommodation for the sake of their children.

Now magazine says the marriage is over in all but name, and that Madonna is preparing to sell Ashcombe House, their palatial English country estate, and move permanently to New York.

The pair will publicly confirm the split very soon, the magazine said.