Madonna recounts adoption furor on \'Oprah\'

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Madonna: "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.

...

Here's what I knew: 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.

"
A coalition of human rights groups have filed suit to block the adoption, citing Malawian law which states only citizens of Malawi can adopt from there. Other critics have implied the adoption process was sped up because of Madonna's celebrity and her philanthropic efforts in the African nation.
Madonna: "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 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.' "
On David's arrival Oct.

17 at her London home, joining daughter Lourdes, 10, and son Rocco, 6:
Madonna: "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 color, or questioned his presence in our life. That is an amazing lesson that children do teach us."
Madonna: "An 8-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.

" The singer brought a pediatrician to treat many orphans in Malawi and that's when she learned David had tested negative for tuberculosis, malaria and HIV. But he did have severe pneumonia. "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. ..

. and (he) 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.

"
Madonna: "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.

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.