Madonna has adopted twin girls from Malawi, government officials have confirmed.
The Malawian high court granted the singer permission to adopt four-year-old Stella and Esther on Tuesday, with judiciary spokesperson Mlenga Mvula confirming that Madonna was present in the courtroom when the adoption order was passed.
According to Mvula, the singer ‘exuded happiness’ at the decision, and ‘smiled when she was making her way out of the courtroom’ before driving away with her two new daughters.
Madonna has previously adopted two Malawian children, David Banda in 2006 and Mercy James in 2009, and is also mother to Lourdes, 20, and Rocco, 16.
Stella and Esther were orphaned in 2012, and are being adopted from the Home of Hope orphanage in Mchinji, where David Banda previously lived.
In January, the singer quashed rumours that she was planning to adopt more children, despite reports that she had appeared in the Malawian high court to make her application.
‘I am in Malawi to check on the children’s hospital in Blantyre and my other work with Raising Malawi, and then heading home,’ she said, in a statement released by her publicist. ‘The rumours of an adoption process are untrue.’
The singer founded her non-profit organisation Raising Malawi in 2006. Speaking to People magazine, Mvula says that Madonna’s long-standing record of charity work in the country was taken into account when the court considered her application.
‘Madonna has been very close to Malawi,’ Mvula explained. ‘She has been involved in so many projects and is currently helping to expand the children’s ward at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. So Madonna has been coming to Malawi frequently. So it is not unusual to people in Malawi at all. They know Madonna very well in terms of the high-profile work she has done for the community.’