More fallout from the Guy Ritchie/Madonna divorce. Us Weekly is reporting that the father of the Malawi boy the couple adopted, David Banda, wants his boy back. As news hit that Ritchie was never supportive of the adoption in the first place, the tabloid claims that David’s father is wondering aloud if his son is going to get caught up in the acrimony.
In light of Madonna’s divorce from Guy Ritchie, David Banda’s biological father is having second thoughts about giving his son up.
“I am still a poor farmer with nothing to offer, but maybe he’d be better off back with us,” he told Britain’s The Sun.
“This woman, Madonna, told me herself that David was beautiful and made her happy and she promised to take care of him,” Yohane Banda added. “Now I see him in a big bewildering crowd in the street with people pushing and shoving, and many cameras around, and without a mother and father to hold his hand. I’m feeling bad for him.”
Since Madonna adopted David in Malawi in 2006, David’s biological dad has moved into a thatched hut with his new wife, their three-year-old daughter and their seven-month-old son.
“I have the joy of a new family and I even have a new son,” he told The Sun. “But now, when I think of David in danger of living outside a family life, I find it unbearable.”
However, an interview with Australian Sun Herald published last Friday reports the contrary. In this interview, David’s father says he hopes Madonna will keep David because she has given him a much better life than he ever could.
THE biological father of the Malawian toddler adopted by US singer Madonna and her British film director Guy Ritchie says he is shocked at news of their divorce but wants her to keep the child.
“I am shocked but not too sad. I only met Madonna and her husband once in court when we were signing the first documents for adoption in 2006,” Yohane Banda said by telephone from his village of Mchinji, 110 kilometres from the capital Lilongwe.
“As I have always said, Madonna loves the child, and I want to encourage her to keep loving the boy despite the divorce,” he said.
“I allowed my son to be adopted in order to escape poverty. If he was still here, he could have probably died,” he said.
[From the Australian Sun Herald]
This rumor about David has been buzzing around since the divorce announcement last week. It’s hard to say how this will play out. Madonna did sidestep some of the adoption procedure to get David, and in this case one of his parents is still alive. But if this second interview is to be believed, David’s father still thinks his son is better off with his adoptive parents, even with the recent divorce situation. Even if it’s true that Guy didn’t support the adoption in the beginning, he does seem to dote on the boy now. He’s been photographed carrying the child around more often than Madonna lately. I think returning David to his father at this point would probably do more harm than good.
David Banda and Madonna are shown outside the Kabbalah Centre on 10/1/08. Credit: Fame Pictures
