Madonna's baby fears

Oct 26, 2006, 7:00 GMT

Madonna has 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.

"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: "I didn't realize that the adoption was causing any controversy until I came back.

"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."

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'."

She also said she did not believe claims that David'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 terrorized by the media."

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'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.

(C) BANG Media International