Guy Ritchie: Madonna is "Retarded"

Wonderwall, Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 10:35am (PDT)

By Alex Blagg

Director Guy Ritchie recently sat down for an interview with Esquire magazine to promote his upcoming "Sherlock Holmes" film, and, my, was he feeling chatty. But in between his pontifications on fighting, fatherhood, and the finer points of 19th century detective work, Ritchie also felt compelled to solve a bigger mystery: How does he really feel about his ex-wife, Madonna, in the wake of their hyper-publicized divorce?

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Well, he starts out nicely enough:

"She's a manifester, if there ever was one. First-rate manifester. Madonna makes things happen. Put Madonna up against any 23-year-old, she'll outwork them, outdance them, outperform them. The woman is broad."

Hey, compliments! Way to keep things classy, right? But wait, a few sentences later, all the compliments suddenly become somewhat back-handed:

"And, of course, here you go: I still love her," he says. "But she's retarded, too."

Yikes! He just couldn't stop himself from insulting both an international superstar and people with genuine mental handicaps, could he?

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If you ask us, "retarded" was not the best choice of words for one's ex-wife (or anyone, really), especially when speaking to a magazine writer whose report will be endlessly publicized, scrutinized, and sensationalized. Though we suppose that Ritchie has never struck us as the "PC" sort of bloke. And, remember, he's still feeling the sting of a divorce.

"You can't tell someone when they're getting divorced that their pain is an illusion," he says. "I'm f---ing telling you, I feel it, I've been through that. You have, too. No one can say you don't feel that. That's the illusion of the illusion. The biggest fundamental is, you need a little ignorance."

A little ignorance is one thing, Guy, but let's not go overboard.

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