Tragic twins Madonna is seeking to adopt – and the two mothers that they have lost
THE woman who acted as the mother of the orphaned twin girls from Malawi who Madonna wants to adopt would be horrified to know they may be taken to the United States, says her sister.
Four-year-old twins Esther and Stella’s mother died in childbirth and at one day old they were taken to an orphanage.
They were cared for by Estelina Kalumpha, who they grew up believing to be their birth mother. But in a devastating second tragedy, she died in August last year from fever.
Last night, her sister Gladys told the MoS: ‘She cared for them from the minute they arrived at the orphanage.
‘If she knew a foreigner was taking them away, she would be very unhappy.
‘They are lovely girls, so alike that even I can’t always tell them apart. I don’t know what is going to happen to them, or where they will go. I fear I may never see them again.’
The girls’ father had taken them to the Home Of Hope orphanage after their mother’s death when he found himself unable to care for them at the village where he lived in poverty.
Madonna, 58, has been a visitor to the orphanage for several years. She adopted David James in Malawi in 2006 and then controversially adopted Mercy, from the orphanage, six years ago, after a lengthy legal fight.
The girl’s grandfather, Saxon Maunde, later complained he had been tricked into giving consent and had been led to believe Mercy would be educated abroad and then returned to her family.
A court is now deciding if Madonna, 58, can adopt Esther and Stella and take them to live with her in the US.
The pop star last week denied she was seeking to adopt further children from Malawi.
However, Malawi’s Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare confirmed she had submitted paperwork and her application was being considered.
She was photographed leaving the High Court in Lilongwe by a rear entrance, surrounded by bodyguards. A court official said Madonna would not be able to take the children from Malawi until an adoption decision had been made.
A judge will study the vetting procedure and decide in three weeks whether their adoption can go through. The girls are staying at an unknown location until the court’s decision.