Madonna breaks silence on Guy Ritchie split

London, Feb 1 (ANI): Madonna has finally opened up about her failed marriage to Guy Ritchie, saying that the romance died, leaving her wondering if true love even existed.

The 53-year-old singer said that at the start things were 'flawless' but as the years rolled on she began to notice "cracks in the veneer".

She began to have doubts and realized that marriage was not what she thought it was going to be.

And come the end of their relationship all she could think about was the brutally blunt question: "How much am I willing to sacrifice?"

The Material Girl and Ritchie, 43, finally split up in 2008 after eight years of marriage.

Madonna said in an interview with Newsweek Magazine that she was nearing the end of her marriage when she started writing her new film 'W.E.' about the love affair between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII, her first major project since the split.

At the time she said she was "certainly asking a kind of existential question that I think people ask when they've been married that long: what is the perfect love?"

"Because when you start off, everything's great and lovely, and the person you've married is flawless, and you're flawless," the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.

"Then time goes by, and you share a life, you have children, and there are cracks in the veneer.

"It's not as romantic as it used to be. You think, 'This isn't what I thought it was going to be,' and 'How much am I willing to sacrifice?" she said.

The pop queen's comments are a rare insight into her marriage, but Ritchie has been far more vocal about their relationship in the past.

He said that whilst he does not regret his time with her, the drama was too much and that their life became a "soap opera". (ANI)