Madonna Buys New York Home Using Maiden Name.

Pop star Madonna has purchased a New York apartment using her maiden name - sparking further fears her marriage to Guy Ritchie is in trouble.The Holiday hitmaker bought the flat directly above her existing home near Central Park for $ 7 million (£3.5 million) using her maiden name, Ciccone.It is believed the 49-year-old will knock through the building to make a "super duplex" apartment.The couple's marriage came under intense scrutiny last month (10Mar08) when the director failed to show up at New York's Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, where his wife was honoured.This was the latest of several events the couple had failed to attend together, prompting scurrilous reports they'd split Meanwhile in related news Madonna would never trade the pressures of fame for a life outside superstardom's harsh limelight - because she loves being a celebrity.The pop superstar appeared on U.S. TV's The Today Show on Friday (25Apr08) to discuss her film I Am Because We Are, a documentary following the struggles of children orphaned by Aids in Malawi - the birthplace of the star's adopted son David Banda.When asked if she hoped she would one day fade out of the limelight, the Holiday hitmaker told host Ann Curry, "Yeah I have moments of it. But I don't want to wish that I'm not me. I don't wish I was someone else".She added, "My reinventions are part of my evolution and my growth as a person. There are aspects of it that are frivolous and aspects of it that are real".

But she hopes "that my soul reached its full potential and that I did everything that I was put on this earth to do".

I Am Because We Are premiered at New York's Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday (24Apr08).