The father of the Malawian boy adopted by Madonna has said that he was not told about her proposed divorce and does not want his son to be brought up by a single mother.

Yohane Banda, 33, a peasant farmer, said that he now regretted putting his son David up for adoption and urged the pop star and her husband Guy Ritchie, the film director, to resolve their differences for the sake of the three-year-old.

Madonna, 50, began adoption proceedings after meeting the boy at an orphanage in Malawi. At the time it was claimed that the singer had used her celebrity status to fast-track the adoption, an allegation she denied.

Last week David’s father said he was astonished when he was told that the couple had formally announced their separation. Banda said he had received no communication from Madonna, whom he accused of reneging on her promise to maintain contact between him and his son.

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“I am completely ignorant about what is going on. I don’t even have photos to show off my son,” he said.

“Other fathers who have had their children adopted by outsiders have photos in their homes and they receive letters updating them about how their child is doing. I want to be told about my son.”

Banda, from Lipunga, a village 100 miles from Lilongwe, put his son up for adoption after his wife died shortly after giving birth. He said he had thought David would have a better life.

“When a mother and father divorce, or the mother or father marries another person, I know that it becomes very difficult for the children to adjust,” Banda said.

Madonna and Ritchie, who married in 2000 at a Scottish castle, announced their intention last week to divorce after months of speculation about the state of their marriage.

The popstar , w ho appeared to make a thinly veiled attack on her husband during a concert last week in America for being “emotionally retarded”, has hired Fiona Shackleton, the divorce lawyer who acted for Sir Paul McCartney.

Ritchie, meanwhile, is reported to have consulted Lady Helen Ward, the lawyer who secured Britain’s biggest divorce settlement: £48m for Beverley Charman, the former wife of an insurance magnate.

While the couple are expected to conclude a deal on their financial affairs within days, they are said to be bitterly divided over who should have custody of their three children and where they should be raised. The children are David, Lourdes, 12, Madonna’s daughter bya previous relationship, and Rocco, 8.

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