Madonna and Ritchie hearing to be public

When Madonna and the British film director Guy Ritchie got a 'quickie' divorce last year few details emerged about their private life because the legal discussions were carried out behind closed doors.

However, according to the London Evening Standard, this will all change when the custody battle over their two sons - Rocco, aged seven, and an adopted son, David Banda - moves to New York, where the 50-year-old singer is seeking to ratify court orders already issued in London. For unlike English family law courts, the New York Supreme Court hearing, which has been listed for March 2, will be open to the public.

While Ritchie, who received a £45m settlement from Madonna - the largest given to a husband in British legal history - is said to be generally happy about the children being based in the US, the hearing raises the prospect of personal details being aired in court as they determine the nature of this arrangement.

It has been alleged that Madonna, who is deeply influenced by kabbalah, a form of Jewish spiritualism, has insisted her sons eat kosher food and attend synagogue on Fridays and Saturdays. It is also claimed that she has demanded that Ritchie, 40, upgrade the internet connection at his country estate in Wiltshire allowing her to communicate fully with her boys when her ex-husband has custody.

Meanwhile, Ritchie, who has expressed his fascination with the criminal classes through his films, among them Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, will no doubt be pleased to learn that the father of the New York judge who will preside over the hearing, Deborah Kaplan, has some connections with the underworld. Burton Kaplan was sentenced to 27 years in jail in 1997 for masterminding a drug trafficking ring. ·