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Madge: I hid kiss from Lourdes
By James Langton, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 12.11.03
Madonna answers questions from her students at the book launch
Madonna has revealed how she kept her controversial kisses with rival pop stars Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera secret from her seven-year-old daughter Lourdes.
The 45-year-old mother of two shocked television audiences with the full on the lip embraces during a performance of her hit, Like a Virgin, at this year's MTV video awards.
But she claimed Lourdes, who joined her on stage dressed as a flower girl for the start of the song, did not witness the steamy clinch. "As soon as she got off stage she was whisked away in a car and went home. So she doesn't know anything," Madonna said.
The singer, who is married to British film director Guy Ritchie, insisted the kisses were just "ironic, because I was playing the groom and I had two brides, so we were operating at many levels. It was like a passing on of the baton, so to speak".
Madonna also revealed she wanted to send Lourdes to a convent school in Ireland, joking on American late-night television that she was keen for her to "learn the finer points of needle point".
The pop star, who once complained that her own childhood was "very repressive, very catholic", admitted she is strict with her own children, banning them from watching TV. Instead, they are permitted just one video or DVD each week "as a treat".
Madonna, who was yesterday promoting her children's book in a New Jersey school, also spoke about living in London.
She said that going to pubs with her husband is "very fun" and that she enjoys pheasant shooting because "you get to wear this fantastic three-piece tweed suit. That's the part I love best".
Calling herself "an Anglophile" she said one of the hardest things about living in Britain is that "you drive on the wrong side of the road."
And like every couple, she admitted have occasional tiff with Ritchie in the car. "My husband almost killed me, " she said.
