When did Madonna adopt her children from Malawi?

DAVID BANDA, 2006

Madonna met David at the Lilongwe orphanage, Home of Hope and fell in love instantly during a visit to Malawi in 2006 when she was working with the organization Raising Malawi.

His mother had died a week after giving birth to David, but controversy surrounded the adoption at the time as David still had a biological father living and the star was accused of 'kidnapping' him from his family.

Madonna and her then-husband Guy Ritchie brought David home to the UK when he was 13-months old.  

The star admitted recently that she once 'cried herself to sleep' after reading headlines

'In my mind, I was thinking, "Wait a minute. I'm trying to save somebody's life. Why are you all s***ing on me right now?" I did everything by the book. That was a real low point for me,' she told People magazine. 

MERCY JAMES, 2009

Madonna met Mercy shortly after her son David, but it was several years before she launched proceedings to adopt four-year-old Mercy from the Blantyre orphanage at Kondanani.

Her teenage mother had died a few days after giving birth from complications. 

At first the country's high court overturned her bid on the grounds that she was a divorced woman, having split from her husband Guy Ritchie. 

However, she won permission from the supreme court of appeal despite not having been resident in the country for 18 to 24 months as the law required. 

ESTHER AND STELLA, 2017 

The twins had lived together in an orphanage for two years when Madonna applied for custody of the girls at the High Court in the capital Lilongwe on January 25 last year.

According to court records, the children were born on August 24, 2012 and at the time of the hearing of the petition they were aged four years and seven months.

Judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula said their father is still alive while their mother died within one week of delivery on 29th August 2012 from Caesarian section complications.   

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