Now Madonna reveals she wants to adopt a baby girl from Malawi

However it seems it was not enough to put Madonna off going through it all again.

• More TV and showbiz news

The pop queen has revealed she plans to adopt a second youngster from impoverished Malawi - this time a baby girl, to "redress the balance" in her family.

She is already mother to Lourdes, ten, and Rocco, six.

Asked in an interview if she wanted another child the 48-year-old answered: "Yes, absolutely. I'm going to adopt another Malawian child very quickly. A baby girl this time, in order to redress the balance".

The 48-year-old said that Lourdes and Rocco would be involved in the 'choice' of their new baby sister but she wanted them to have time to get used to 13-month-old David Banda - who Madonna is in the process of adopting - first.

He was flown to the singer's £7.5 million home in Marble Arch last month after she and her film director husband Guy Ritchie were granted an interim order allowing them to take him from him Malawi.

The youngster had been placed in an orphanage in Mchinji by his father Yohane following the death of his mother.

In the interview with the French magazine Paris Match Madonna said: "The next time I go to Africa to visit the orphanage, I am going to take the children with me. I want to open their minds to the rest of the world."

Madonna went on to once again defend her controversial adoption of David.

"I saved this child from certain death, there is nothing more important in my eyes than that. I love David like a son.

"Of course, after some time, I intend to return David to his home so that he can get to know his biological father and so that he can discover his homeland", she said.

The star has been roundly criticised over her plans to adopt David.

News she had been granted an interim order to remove him despite rules stating adoptive parents should live in Malawi for a year sparked fury amongst childrens charities, church groups and aid organisations.

Even David's father appeared to have turned against her after he claimed he had not fully understood what he had signed.

The Human Rights Consultative Committee - representing 67 groups across the country - is in the process of trying to mount a legal challenge against the adoption.

A judge in Malawi will rule next week on whether to allow it.

In the meantime Madonna has launched a PR offensive appearing on a number of chatshows where she claimed he had severe pneumonia when she first met him and his life would have been in danger without her intervention.

She also talked of her shock at the reaction to the adoption.

In the interview with Paris Match she said: "It was not me who chose Malawi, but it chose me. "A native of the country contacted me though my association, Spirituality for Kids which I publicise in all my shows.

"She helps a lot of orphans in Malawi and she told me about the childhood poverty, and the dreadful mortality rate.

"She asked me for help as my fame could help focus on the problems.

"I started my own inquiry and I said to myself: 'They need help!"

Madonna added that she intended to bring her African babies up in as strict a fashion as her biological children and admitted she was tough about televisions and video games.

"There are no screens in the their bedrooms. Television can be the best and the worst. But I'm not tough all the time, they know that as well", she said.