THE first photographs of Madonna's newly enlarged family have been released as the pop star says she doesn't understand the controversy.
The photos were released soon after Madonna gave a frank interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show where she revealed the African baby she adopted is ill with pneumonia.
Madonna confessed: When I met him, he was extremely ill.
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.
ldquo;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 when we found him.
The singer criticised the controversy surrounding the adoption, claiming it will discourage others from adopting African orphans.
She added in an emotional interview on the Oprah Winfrey show: ldquo;I didn't realise that the adoption was causing any controversy until I came back.
ldquo;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 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 five.
rdquo;
Madonna added that being a rich and famous pop star had not helped to speed up the adoption process.
She said: I assure you it doesn't matter who you are or how much money you have, nothing goes fast in Africa. There are no adoption laws in Malawi and I was warned by my social worker that we 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'.
rdquo;
She also said she did not believe claims that David rsquo;s father was against the adoption.
Madonna said: 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 terrorised by the media. rdquo;
The singer also told how her children, ten-year-old Lourdes and six-year-old Rocco have welcomed Malawian baby David into their family.
She said: They just embraced him, and that's the amazing thing about children. They don't ask questions. 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 do teach us.
To add to Madonna rsquo;s family problems Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has reported her father, Tony Ciccone, is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer.
The singer has had a difficult relationship with her strict Catholic father as he disapproved of her raunchy image during the 80s and 90s but they were finally reconciled last year.
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.
Final approval for the adoption order is expected in 18 months.
The child is now at Madonna's London home with her other two children - daughter Lourdes, 10, and son Rocco, 6.
Time Magazine on its website carried an interview with the father, who is quoted as saying he will not insist that the boy be returned, though he did not understand the child would be gone for good when he gave his permission to Madonna.
Madonna said she believed the media had manipulated David's father to say he did not know what he had agreed to.
The boy's father is a a simple man who comes from a village.
He has been terrorised by the press which has spun out a completely false story, the entertainer said.
She said she promised the father that she would bring the boy back for visits. By giving David an education and a better life, she said, he may some day be able to return to his homeland and help people there.
Madonna said she and her husband had planned on adopting two years ago, not knowing where they would adopt. She said it was her charity work in Malawi that brought them to David.
David had spent most of his life in an orphanage with 500 other children although his father was alive.
Madonna said she was told his mother and three siblings had died of AIDS and added, from my perspective, there was no one looking after David's welfare.
She said she was discouraged by the negative publicity.
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, she said.
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.
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