"There are no adoption laws in Malawi. And I was warned by my social worker that . . . they were more or less going to have to make them up as we went along," Madonna told the talk show host.

"�I assure you it doesn't matter who you are or how much money you have, nothing goes fast in Africa."

Madonna also addressed the reports that the baby's father, Yohane Banda, thought the adoption was only temporary. "I sat in that room, I looked into that man's eyes. I believe that the press is manipulating this information out of him. I believe he's been terrorised by the media. They have asked him things, repeatedly, and they have put words in his mouth. They have spun a story that is completely false."

She also said: "Here's what I knew: David had been living in this orphanage since he was two weeks old. He had survived malaria and tuberculosis, and no one from his extended family had visited him since the time he arrived. So from my perspective, there was no one looking after David's welfare."

Madonna also addressed the media storm around the adoption. "I understand that gossip and negative stories sell newspapers. But I'm disappointed because it discourages other people from doing the same thing - anybody who had the idea that they, too, would like to open their home and give a life to a child in an orphanage who might not live past the age of 5 . . . I feel like the media is doing a great disservice to all the orphans of Africa.