Madonna: "I offered to help boy's father"

Pop babe, Madonna said Tuesday that the father of the African boy she is trying to adopt refused her offer of financial assistance to help him keep his son reports Reuters.
Some critics have said it would have been better for 13-month-old David Banda if Madonna had helped his impoverished father to care for him at home in Malawi rather than bringing the boy to live with her and her family in London. The American pop star created a storm of controversy after she adopted Banda. "I said I would be happy to ... bring him back to your village and help you financially raise him. And he said no," Madonna said.

"I think he truly felt in his heart of hearts -- and who knows if he was telling me the truth -- that he (David) would have a better life with me. So when he said no, that was, you know, that was my sign that...it was my responsibility to look after him."

Responding to media reports, Madonna denied the boy had received regular visits from his family reports BBC

"I never met a granny and I was told … that from the day that he was left in the orphanage he was not visited by any extended family members and that's really why I became interested in him," she said in extracts from the interview that were published on the BBC website.

"If someone had said to me: 'His dad comes every week,' or, 'His granny visits on a regular basis and he's well looked after,' I would not even have given it another thought."

Last week, Madonna said she had clear permission to adopt David from his father, Yohane Banda.

In another interview with Today revealed that she is stunned by the slams reports Faded Youth.

Madonna on the controversy: "When I had my daughter, people accused me that I did it as a publicity stunt. I expected that. I didn't expect to be accused of kidnapping, or of doing something illegal. I didn't expect to be demonized."

Madonna on the backlash -- including the alliance of 67 groups pushing for the right to challenge the interim adoption: "With all the chaos, pain and suffering in the world - the situation in Iraq, with Iran and North Korea - the fact that my adoption of a child who was living in an orphanage was the number one story for a week in the world... says more about our inability to focus on the real problems, and our desire to have distractions and to be consumed with gossip."

Madonna on what she suspects why people had a problem with the adoption: "I think it’s still considered taboo. I have people say to me when I’m walking down the street, ‘Why did you adopt a black child?’ I don’t dignify their question with a reply. But there is a lot of racism in the world. I think that’s underneath a lot of people’s prejudice about me adopting David. A lot of people have a problem with the fact that I’ve adopted an African child, a child who has a different color skin than I do. I’m not going to buy into it and neither are my children. So I don’t worry about it. I don’t live in a white world. I live in THE world. And my children are exposed to all cultures and all races and many belief systems."

Madonna on David wearing the red Kabbalah string bracelet: "Studying Kabbalah doesn’t mean you can’t be a Christian or a Buddhist or a Muslim or a Jew or agnostic. It’s not a dogmatic religion. It’s kind of philosophy. I believe in Jesus and I study Kabbalah. So, I don’t see why he can’t too."