Madonna has infuriated the biological father of her adopted Malawian son David Banda by insisting the child would be dead if she hadn’t rescued him.

The Vogue hitmaker and her director husband Guy Ritchie caused outrage in the African country in 2006 after she brought two-year-old Banda back to Britain, amid claims the couple side-stepped the official adoption process.

And the singer is set for more controversy after saying in the upcoming issue of Interview magazine: “He (David) wouldn’t have lived if I hadn’t taken him. It’s not even a possibility.”

But the remark has reportedly left Yohane Banda, the toddler’s peasant farmer father, “stunned”, with a source close to the Malawian family telling U.K. newspaper The People: “Madonna should choose her words a bit more carefully. To say these things about David’s life before she adopted him is just not right.”

It is possible Madonna’s comment could be examined at next month’s hearing at a Malawian court, where an official decision over the adoption case will be made by a human rights panel.

WENN