Madonna and Guy Ritchie are splitting up — and we champion the dissolution of their marriage because we never believed it was anything more than a publicity stunt to give Madonna a reason to use her fake British accent.

When two people decide to marry and create children just to collect them, we worry about the grander lesson being taught to the world at large where only money matters and love and confidence and coddling are pressed to the wayside as tasks to be done by caretakers and never parents.

Madonna and Guy should remain alone and independent for the rest of their lives — that way they will not wound another innocent or foster the false idea that celebrity and fame are more important than tending the tears of your children broken by divorce and maimed by hurt feelings and scarred by the limelight of an international fame they did not ask for or earn.