Madonna Shows Softer Side on 'Nightline'

At almost 50, MADONNA loves the way she looks, isn't thinking about her upcoming milestone birthday, and tells "Nightline"'s CYNTHIA McFADDEN that Malawian AIDS orphans have as much to offer her as she can give them.

These topics all came up in a conversation that will air tonight at 11:35 on the ABC news program.

"I'm not thinking about my birthday," the Material Mom tells Cynthia with her usual directness. "I'm thinking about what I'm going to eat for dinner tonight. That's my future plan."

Madonna tells the journalist she's very satisfied with the state of her life right now: "If I didn't feel good and wasn't doing what I wanted to do with my life maybe [turning 50] would bother me. But I feel good about what I'm doing. I feel like in a way it's given me a feeling of accomplishment for living this long and to still be able to do what I want to do and feel as good as I do. It's a blessing."

She says she likes her body more now than ever ("My thighs aren't as chubby") and says she doesn't even look at pictures of her from last week, preferring to leave the past in the past.

On adopting her toddler son DAVID from Malawi (the adoption is scheduled to be finalized in the near future), she says she first saw him being carried by an eight-year-old girl and thought, "Oh my God, she's eight and she's taking care of a six-month-old child." She continues, "I was drawn to him and I started carrying him around for her. When I came back the next time, that's when he was ill and that's when I really knew that I had a connection to him." And, she says that although she went into Malawi to make her new documentary about AIDS orphans ('I am Because We Are' debuted at Cannes this week) thinking, "I am going to save these people," she learned that they had much to offer her. "I've never seen so much tangible suffering, but I've never experienced so much joy and openness."

Looking beyond the music mogul's often tough-as-nails exterior, she admits that working in the studio on her new album with fellow music stars JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE and PHARRELL WILLIAMS wasn't  always easy. "You could say they're divas in their own right," she tells Cynthia.

She says there were "hiccups" in the studio, but "with Pharrell, he actually made me cry. I've never told anyone that before." She goes on to say that she thinks she "was just having a bad day," like anyone.

For more with Madonna, watch tonight's "Nightline."

Published 5/22/08 by