Madonna didn’t know where Malawi was before she adopted David Banda

Madonna has confessed she didn’t even know where Malawi was before adopting a son from the African nation in 2006.

The singer sat down for a chat with America’s Interview magazine, in which she talks about Malawi - admitting that she had to look it up on a map - her upcoming documentary, her children and her new album.

The Material Girl star was interviewed by departing editor, Ingrid Sischy, in her last stint as the magazine chief.

Her film on Africa starts with a woman calling her up randomly and begging her to help Malawi.

“You say that you felt embarrassed because you didn’t know where Malawi was,” Sischy says. “And she [the caller] tells you to look it up on a map and hangs up.”

“Yeah, and I went there,” Madonna jokes.

Discussing how Madonna, 49, got the likes of Bill Clinton, Bishop Desmond Tutu, economist Jeffrey Sachs and anthropologist and “genius grant” recipient Paul Farmer to appear in her film, Sischy asks if she had to dole out any “benefits.”

“No,” the singer laughs. “No sexual favors either.”

And, according to the New York Post, she said going to Africa and seeing harsh poverty has benefited her kids.
She told Interview: “[It’s important] my children see and experience that on a regular basis, so that they understand they breathe rarified air, and that it’s their job to share what they have with other people.”

Sischy has been editor-in-chief at Interview magazine - which was founded by Andy Warhol in 1969 - for 18 years after being recruited following the Pop Art icon’s death in 1987. She has chronicled the lives of the rich and fabulous from Donna Karan to Lindsay Lohan and Elizabeth Taylor.

The Madonna issue - featuring provocative photographs of the Material Girl star in a boxing ring, shot by lensman Steven Klein, hits newsstands in the US later this month.

Madonna adopted son David Banda from Malawi in October 2006.