Madonna blasts affair 'fiction'

Madonna has branded reports she is having an affair with a US baseball star as "fiction". The '4 Minutes' singer - who has been linked to New York Yankees baseball star Alex Rodriguez amid claims her seven-year marriage to Guy Ritchie has broken down - insists she has had nothing to do with the sportsman's break-up from his wife Cynthia, and is not getting divorced herself.

She said in a statement: "My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce. I know Alex Rodriguez through Guy Oseary, who manages both of us. I brought my kids to a Yankee game. I am not romantically involved in any way with Alex Rodriguez. I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage or what spiritual path he may choose to study. "I have learned over the years not to take accusations and the many false reports about me very seriously.

I also appreciate how fiction and fact seem to be perceived as one and the same by people who read both newspapers and the internet." Recent reports claimed father-of-two Alex had been making late night visits to Madonna's New York apartment.

Over the weekend, it was alleged one of the reasons Cynthia had separated from Alex was due to his choice to join the Kabbalah, the mystical Jewish faith which Madonna belongs to. Meanwhile, Madonna and Guy - who raise three children together, Lourdes, 11, Rocco, seven, and two-year-old David - put on a united front over the weekend as the family visited the Kabbalah centre in New York.