While the media was busy covering Madonna’s latest unsuccessful attempt to adopt another child from Malawi, not much was made of another newsworthy (to me anyway) story that took place during the singer’s recent trip to the African nation.
According to reports, the Material Mom made sure her three children–12-year-old Lourdes, 8-year-old Rocco, and 3-year-old David–accompanied her during her pilgrimage to Malawi last week. The entire family spent six days touring various poor African villages to promote Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity. (The charity helps feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi’s more than 1 million orphans, half of whom have lost parents to AIDS.) The trip was also designed to allow the pop diva’s adopted son David Banda a chance to visit with his biological father.
You’ll recall that it took nearly two years for Madonna to officially become David’s adoptive mother, thanks to legal wrangling. In addition, the case was fraught with criticism and allegations that the singer turned actress received preferential treatment from Malawian government officials.
Still, Madonna got her way and now David is her child. It’s a fact she made very clear when taking the little boy to visit his biological son last week. Reading details of David’s dad, Yohane’s meeting with his son was heartbreaking to say the least. First of all, despite her promise to allow David to interact “on a regular basis” with his biological dad and other family members, Madonna has not traveled to Malawi with David since she first obtained temporary custody of him in 2006. Meaning the boy’s biological father hadn’t seen him in more than two years.
When asked to describe their meeting last week Yohane gave this tear-jerking account:
“He asked me who I was. When I told him ‘I am your daddy’ he looked surprised and couldn’t believe it. He asked me lots of questions about lots of things. He asked me whether I ride horses. I told him horses are for the rich and he asked me why I am poor. He told me his mum likes riding horses and that he too rides horses.”
Yohane also shared that David told him that Guy Ritchie is his “daddy” and that he is very “happy.”
Interestingly, when prodded by reporters about his decision to give his son up for adoption Yohane announced that he didn’t have any regrets.
“I was very happy to meet David again,” Yohane shared. “He reminds me of the two sons I lost in infancy. I sometimes shudder to think that David could also have met the same fate had Madonna not adopted him. I am really grateful to her for saving David from possible early death.”
Despite his humble response, I can’t help but feel sorry for Yohane. He’s still the boy’s biological father. It’s too bad that Madonna’s definition of “regular” visits equates to once every couple of years.