The pop star was also adamant that she would not be seeking to adopt 13 month old David Banda if she thought he had been receiving regular visits from his family at the orphanage where she found him.
In an interview with the BBC, she denied media reports that the toddler was visited regularly at the orphanage by his father and grandmother.
"I never met a granny and I was told... that from the day that he was left in the orphanage, he was not visited by any extended family members and that's really why I became interested in him.
"If someone had said to me: 'His dad comes every week' or 'His granny visits on a regular basis and he's well looked after', I would not even have given it another thought."
Asked if she could have left him in Malawi and supported him there, the star said: "Yes, I offered that option to the father and he declined.
Madonna provoked storms of criticism when she flew the child out of Malawi to London last month.
Madonna, who described the world's reaction to her adoption application as "shocking", has been granted a temporary custody order for the boy, who is now staying at her family home in central
London.
She told the BBC that, along with her director husband Guy Ritchie, she had been discussing adoption for about two years, and the couple decided 10 months ago that they wanted to formally adopt a child and embarked upon the process.
And she's told US television station NBC, in an interview to be aired in full today that she believed racism was involved in the opposition of some people to the adoption.
"I think it's still considered taboo. I have people say to me when I'm walking down the street: 'Why did you adopt a black child?'"
"I don't dignify their question with a reply. But there is a lot of racism in the world."
A coalition of Malawian rights groups is now mounting a legal challenge against her adoption move.
According to extracts of the BBC interview released in advance, Madonna said that there had been "many conditions" which made her worry for David’s life.
"One was the fact that, according to the reverend who ran the orphanage that Banda came from, his father never visited him.
"His father lived 50 or 60 kilometres away, had no car, had no money and, as far as I was told, had remarried and moved on with his life," she said.
The boy's mother died within days of giving birth to him.