A woman claiming to be the grandmother of the African boy Madonna is seeking to adopt said that he was visited regularly in his orphanage by members of his family. Asitineti Mwale’s comments contradict claims made by the pop star in a high-profile interview on BBC2’s Newsnight on Wednesday, in which she appeared to suggest that baby David Banda had no living grandmother. Newsnight had reported that the administrator of the Home of Hope orphanage in Malawi confirmed that the 13-month-old boy had received family visits while resident there. In the interview, Madonna said she disagreed with press reports suggesting David had a natural grandmother. "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. "If someone had said to me, ‘Oh, 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." But Ms Mwale told Newsnight: "David is the son of my son and so, in short, I am his grandmother. I used to visit him almost every month and I have been there several times." Told that it had been suggested David had no contact with his natural family, she responded: "That’s a lie. We used to visit David often and every time he felt sick, we used to get a message from the orphanage and one of the nephews or myself went to see David." "Several" uncles and aunts, including the sister of David’s father Yohane, had been to see the boy, she said. David is currently at Madonna’s London home after the star was granted a temporary custody order – which she says makes her a "foster parent". Her attempt to adopt the child has sparked controversy, in part because of the speed with which she was able to bring him out of Malawi last month.
The Press Association
With everything going on I am not sure she is going to be able to keep him.
