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The Section 25 factors affecting the division include the length of the marriage, the standards of living that both parties have got used to, their respective ages, their earning capacities, past and present and even future income, and whether either has placed their career on hold to help the other - possibly a sore point with RItchie, whose film directing career has languished during the marriage, and is only now starting to revive.

After time spent living together and eight years of marriage, the court would be unlikely to reduce Ritchie's payout because the couple's relationship was a short one - unlike Mills's four year marriage to Sir Paul, which ended with a £24.3m settlement.

Conduct is not normally taken into account unless it involves attempted murder or serious financial wrongdoing, so rumours linking Madonna's name with US basketball star Alex 'A-Rod' Rodriguez would probably play no part.

Madonna and Ritchie are reported to have fallen out over their children, with the singer keen to adopt a second child from Africa and the film director opposed. Ritchie is also said to be unhappy that Lourdes, 12, Rocco, 8, and David, 2, are being uprooted by Madonna's international lifestyle.

The family division of the High Court would only agree to rule on the children's future if the couple were unable to agree, and it would base any ruling on the best interests of the children.

Lourdes' reported desire to see more of her natural father, fitness trainer Carlos Leon who is allegedly staying in one of Madonna's New York flats at present, might be taken into account, although Hicks says that lawyers and courts will always urge a divorcing couple to keep as much continuity in children's lives as possible, with their holidays divided between two parents.

Hicks urged the warring couple to try to settle out of court by using collaborative law, a process imported from the US where each takes their own lawyer into mediation sessions, and where the lawyers are sacked if they fail to help their clients reach agreement. She added that a repeat of the Mills-McCartney divorce bloodbath was unlikely.

"I would have thought that because of who they are, they would just split the capital, and he would walk away from it and she would walk away from it," said Ms Hicks. "He wasn't penniless before the marriage."

Ms Baghurst put a settlement of £50m for RItchie as within the bounds of possibility, but Ms Hicks said that, with all the variables, a figure was too difficult to call.

Ayesha Vardag of Ayesha Vardag Solicitors says a Ritchie and Madonna divorce could dwarf the figures involved in the Mills-McCartney break-up.

“While clearly Madonna has been the bigger hitter, arguably Guy Ritchie has had to take a back seat in his own career in order to back her up and support the family emotionally during her demanding work”, Vardag says.

“The law doesn’t discriminate between breadwinner and home maker - it doesn’t in most circumstances matter who earned the money if they were married and therefore a team. One way or another, this divorce should result in a huge payout for Guy Ritchie if properly handled.”

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