It’s been less than a year since Guy Ritchie and Madonna split up after eight years of marriage, however, in a recent interview with Esquire Ritchie, the director of the upcoming Sherlock Holmes said “And, of course, here you go: I still love her, But she’s retarded, too,”.

He still admires Madonna if the following statement is any indication – “She’s a manifester, if there ever was one,” he says. “First-rate manifester. Madonna makes things happen. Put Madonna up against any 23-year-old, she’ll outwork them, outdance them, outperform them.”

Even though he admires his ex-wife he doesn’t have any of her music on his iPod. Even so, he always thought of Madonna as his wife first, and so did their hometown of London. “Madonna, when she came in here, it was old-school London,” Ritchie says. “No one bothered her. ‘Hello, darling. How are you, darling? What can we get you?’ It was fundamental, old-school. It didn’t matter who she was. She was my wife.”

In the interview he implies that Madonna was partially responsible for his biggest flop as a director due to her part in 2002’s Swept Away in which Madonna starred as a shipwrecked trophy wife. It was a box office disaster!

Ritchie said “My sensibility is accessible. The first two accessible movies I made, Lock, Stock [and Two Smoking Barrels] and Snatch, they are accessible,” he says. “The next two aren’t accessible … Swept Away, which, well, everyone gets confused on, because of Madonna.”