Madonna is Human

Madonna was granted an interim adoption order by the Malawian government last week and final approval is expected in 18 months.

The child was flown last week to London to join Madonna at her home in London with her other two children - daughter Lourdes, 10, and son Rocco, 6.

But the adoption plans sparked a storm of controversy.

Malawian child rights groups, accusing the government of breaking the law in granting an interim adoption order to a non-resident, are challenging the process in court. Critics of the adoption say Madonna used her fame and wealth to fast track the process.

In an interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Madonna said she was drawn to one-year-old David when she first saw him in the arms of an eight-year-old girl who was living with HIV/AIDS.

The star told US chat show host Oprah Winfrey the media had manipulated Yohane Banda (baby daddy) into saying he thought she was only looking after his 13-month-old son David temporarily.

"I didn't realize that the adoption was causing any controversy until I came back. There were a million film crews in the airport and press camped outside my door. I don't read newspapers or watch television, but all of my friends have let me know what everybody's talking about and what's going on in the news. So it didn't really hit me until I got back to England. It's pretty shocking."

Mr Banda, who gave the youngster to an orphanage at five weeks because he was unable to care for him when the baby’s mother died shortly after his birth, has said he never understood that his child was being taken “for good“.

But Madonna said in the interview, details of which were released on Oprah’s website: “I do not believe that is true. I sat in that room, I looked into that man’s eyes.

“I believe that the press is manipulating this information out of him.

“I believe at this point in time, he’s been terrorized by the media.

“They have asked him things, repeatedly, and they have put words in his mouth. They have spun a story that is completely false.�

Madonna also revealed how unwell David was with pneumonia when she first met him at the orphanage in Malawi. He had already survived malaria and tuberculosis.

She also defended herself against claims that she used her celebrity status to speed up the adoption process, saying there were no adoption laws in the country.

“When I met him, he was extremely ill,� the singer said by satellite link from London.

“He had severe pneumonia, and he could hardly breathe.

“I was in a state of panic, because I didn’t want to leave him in the orphanage because I knew they didn’t have medication to take care of him.

“We got permission to take him to a clinic to have a bronchial dilator put on him ... He had pneumonia and was given an injection of antibiotics.

“He’s still a little bit ill, not completely free of his pneumonia, but he’s much better than he was when we found him.�

The singer said her critics did not understand how the Malawian adoption process worked if they believed it was speeded up on her behalf.

“I assure you it doesn’t matter who you are or how much money you have, nothing goes fast in Africa,� Madonna said.

“There are no adoption laws in Malawi.

“And I was warned by my social worker that because there were no known laws in Malawi, they were more or less going to have to make them up as we went along.

“And she did say to me, ’Pick Ethiopia. Go to Kenya. Don’t go to Malawi because you’re just going to get a hard time’.�

Madonna first spotted David in footage from a documentary she is financing about orphans in Malawi, which showed him being held by an eight-year-old girl with HIV.

“I became transfixed by him,� she said.

“But I didn’t yet know I was going to adopt him. I was just drawn to him.�

When she arrived she was told his mother had died of HIV, his three siblings had also died of HIV and that his biological father’s whereabouts were unknown.

“Here’s what I knew,� the singer told Oprah.

“David had been living in this orphanage since he was two-weeks-old.

“He had survived malaria and tuberculosis, and 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.�

Madonna also revealed her thoughts on the media post-adoption frenzy: ""I wouldn't say I'm hurt by it, but I would say I'm disappointed. I understand that gossip and telling negative stories sells newspapers. But I think for me, I'm disappointed because it discourages other people from doing the same thing—for anybody who had the idea that they, too, would like to open their home and give a life to a child living in an orphanage who might possibly not live past the age of 5. Anybody who had that idea would be discouraged from doing it. For me, that's what disappoints me the most. I feel like the media is doing a great disservice to all the orphans of Africa, period, not just Malawi, by turning it into such a negative thing.

I beg all of those people to go to Africa and see what I saw and walk through those villages. … To see 8-year-olds in charge of households. To see mothers dying, with Kaposi sarcoma lesions all over their bodies. To see open sewages everywhere. To see what I saw. It is a state of emergency. As far as I'm concerned, the adoption laws have to be changed to suit that state of emergency. I think if everybody went there, they'd want to bring one of those children home with them and give them a better life."