Gordon in the morning: It's over - probably

The "world exclusive" end of Madonna's marriage sees the Sun scrambling no less than three journalists (I'm using that phrase in its loosest sense):

They can't bear the pretence any more

By EMMA COX,
VIRGINIA WHEELER
and GORDON SMART

There's a triumphant air of "I told you so" at the paper this morning, which rags out its coverage of the A-Rod divorce to show how far ahead of the loop it was.

Mind you, the Sun couldn't have been wrong. Because while it was running a front page about possible extra-marital dabblings with baseball stars, US editor Emily Smith was denying there were any plans:

Madonna denies Guy divorce

MADONNA has denied that she and hubby Guy Ritchie are getting divorced.

In a strongly-worded statement the singer said she and Guy have "no plans to divorce" and insisted rumours of a relationship with US baseball star Alex Rodriguez were not true.

As is traditional on these occasions, Gordon Smart is given a sidebar piece to keep him busy:

I saw their marriage cracking

Gordon shares his eyewitness account of a marriage he's been watching collapse for months:

I have spent a lot of time with Guy over the past few months and I’ve really grown to like him. He is great company, talented and a brilliant father.

The marriage falling apart is incredibly sad but I think he will be far happier now he can be his own man.

You think Gordon - so close to Guy - would have warned one of his colleagues that the marriage was in its end game, to spare The Sun the embarrassment of having run stories like this one in July:

MADONNA and GUY RITCHIE are holding a special family dinner to tell their nearest and dearest that their marriage is finally back on track.

The couple, who have just weathered the biggest storm in their seven-year marriage, will put all the madness of the past few months behind them with a “Shabbat Nachamu” – a night of consolation.

The Kablah-blah ceremony will be witnessed by two rabbis who will fly to the UK from New York, on the weekend of Madge’s 50th birthday next month.

Except, erm, that was Gordon himself reporting on the successful saving of a marriage he now claims he was watching cracking.

Perhaps Gordon was so close to Guy he couldn't bring himself to tell his readers about the tragedy he was watching.