Madonna climbdown on her divorce payout

Madonna was forced into a climbdown today as she admitted her own publicist made a misleading claim over Guy Ritchie's divorce settlement.

"Happy with agreement": Guy Ritchie and Madonna, pictured before split

The couple released a joint statement today which corrected the claim - made by the singer's spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg - that Ritchie had received a payoff of between £50m and £60m. Ritchie, 40, was clearly upset at the suggestion he had earned so much from the eight-year marriage. His pay-off was supposed to have remained private under a confidentiality agreement.

Today's statement said: "A misleading and inaccurate statement, specifically in relation to the sums of money involved, was wrongly issued to AP[news agency] this week. The financial details of the settlement will remain private, save to say that both of us are happy wi th our agreement."

Ms Rosenberg told AP on Mond ay Ritchie had received as much as £60m of Madonna's estimated £300m. She had said: "I'd assume it's one of the largest payouts ever in a divorce." Her comments followed a briefing given to a newspaper on Monday by a source close to Madonna, 50, which maintained Ritchie received between $60m and $70m - or up to £46m. The source said today that Ms Rosenberg had slightly exaggerated the size of Ritchie's pay-off. The source said the report on Monday was "very close to the mark and I think some people were less than happy with that", adding: "The bottom line is, we wanted people to know Guy is getting money and he isn't getting nothing."

Friends of Ritchie, who is worth about £30m, have insisted he received a cash settlement of $20m (£13m) as well as the couple's home in Wiltshire.