Ritchie Stunned By Love For Banda

Filmmaker GUY RITCHIE is stunned by the overwhelming love he has for adopted son DAVID BANDA - because he didn't expect to feel such strong emotions.

The Snatch director and his superstar wife Madonna brought the tot back from Malawi in October 2006, and faced a bitter 20-month battle for the adoption to be approved by the African country's courts.

The adoption of the tot was highly controversial, with the couple attracting accusations that it had bypassed the impoverished nation's laws that ban non-residents from adopting Malawian children.

But Ritchie insists he and his wife have put the lengthy proceedings behind them, and now Banda is one of the family - just like their biological son Rocco and 11-year-old Lourdes, Madonna's daughter from a previous relationship.

He says, "Fatherhood is unbelievable. It has taken over my life.

"But something else surprised me - how much you can love an adopted child, the same as you can love a biological child. I didn't anticipate that."