Madonna has talked publicly for the first time about her planned adoption of Malawian infant David Banda, and says her two other children - ten-year-old Lourdes and Rocco, six - are "completely in love with their new baby brother".
The Material Girl singer was talking to Oprah Winfrey via satellite from her London home in an effort to quell the storm over her adoption plans and explain why she wanted to give 13-month-old David a home. "I wanted to go into a Third World country - I wasn't sure where - and give a life to a child who might not otherwise have had one," she told the US chat-show queen. "I didn't realise that the adoption was causing controversy until I came back (from Africa)."
With tears in her eyes she spoke of the moment she caught sight of little David in a video shot by the orphanage where he'd been placed, alongside 500 other children, when he was just two weeks old. "An eight-year-old girl who is living with HIV was holding this child. I became transfixed by him, but I didn't yet know I was going to adopt him. I was just drawn to him."
When the pop superstar met David - whose mum died shortly after giving birth - he had severe pneumonia and had already survived malaria and tuberculosis. "I was in a state of panic, because I didn't want to leave him in the orphanage," said the singer. Although still not fully recovered, Madonna says her new son is now "much better than he was when we found him".
Justifying her decision to help the youngster, she said: "No one from his extended family had visited him since the time he arrived. So from my perspective, there was no one looking after David's welfare."
She later met with the tot's father, Yohane Banda, who agreed to put him up for adoption. Since then Mr Banda has apparently changed his stance towards his son's future several times, although Madonna does not believe he regrets his decision to permit him being adopted.
"I sat in that room, looked into that man's eyes," she says. "He said he was very grateful that I was going to give his son a life, and that had he kept his son with him in the village he would have buried him. I didn't really need any more confirmation that I was doing the right thing and I had his blessing."
Michigan-born Madonna believes David's father had been "terrorised" by some sections of the media. "They have asked him things, repeatedly and they have put words into his mouth," she said. The singer has clearly been hurt by the negative press her actions have drawn. "I think, for me, I'm disappointed because it discourages other people from doing the same thing."
During the interview Madonna revealed she has been impressed by her children's response to their new sibling, who is currently recovering at her London home. "They've never once said, 'What is he doing here?' or mentioned the difference in his skin colour or questioned his presence in our life. That is an amazing lesson that children teach us."
She said she and her British film-maker husband Guy Richie had wanted to adopt for two years, but insists her celebrity status has not helped her in her plans. "I assure you it doesn't matter who you are or how much money you have, nothing goes fast in Africa."
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
