Madonna to Media: "Shame on You!"
Madonna swung back with visible irritation at the media coverage of her controversial adoption this morning on "Oprah," suggesting that the media is "doing a great disservice" to all African orphans by giving her story such intense coverage. In her first interview since taking in 13-month-old David Banda, her message to the people who had taken an interest in her strange adoption saga was, "Shame on you for discouraging other people from doing the same thing."
She also batted aside claims that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had had any influence on her decision to adopt, saying that she'd never even met Angelina. She added that her new baby David had been tested for several diseases and did not appear to have HIV, even though his mother and siblings had contracted the virus.
The Queen of Pop told Oprah that she viewed the interview as an "opportunity to set the record straight." She said that, contrary to the way the story has been told in recent days by David's birth father Yohane Banda, she met Banda in court and got his legal consent to adopt the child. "He was very grateful that I was going to give his child a life," said Madonna, "and that had [David] stayed in the village he would have buried him" due to poor conditions.
