British singer Adele opened up about her divorce, music and weight loss in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The ‘Easy On Me’ singer said she was embarrassed by her divorce and felt like she had “disrespected” the idea of marriage when she separated from her husband, Simon Konecki.
Adele, 33, said she first realized her marriage was crumbling when she took a personality test in a glossy magazine.
One of the questions asked, “what’s something that no-one would ever know about you?”, and she blurted out to her friends: “I’m really not happy. I’m not living, I’m just plodding along.”
Although Adele was together with Konecki for eight years, she has previously said the marriage and separation both took place in 2018.
Adele stressed that she still loves Konecki, even if she is not “in love” with him. The couple still live opposite each other in Los Angeles, and continue to co-parent their son, Angelo.
She went on to credit Konecki with “saving her life” after she became famous. “At that time in my life, I was so young and I think I would have got in all of it. I could easily gone down some dodgy paths and self-destructed from being so overwhelmed by all of it. And he came in and was the most stable person I’d ever had in my life up until that point. Even now I trust them with my life.”
She added that “terrifying anxiety attacks” after the divorce prompted her to adopt an exercise regime that led to her losing 45kgs in two years.
Adele made a bold statement in regards to the criticism she has faced following her weight loss saying, “I’m not shocked or even fazed by it because my body has been objectified my entire career. I’m either too big or too small; I’m either hot or I’m not.
“But it’s not my job to validate how people feel about their bodies. I feel bad that it’s made anyone feel horrible about themselves – but that’s not my job. I’m trying to sort my own life out. I can’t add another worry. “
Songs like ‘Hello’ and ‘Someone Like You’ have touched millions of people, but Adele confessed the power of her music is a mystery to her.
“I don’t think, as a person, I have what my singing has. I’m pulling from somewhere else [and] I don’t know how I access it.
Asked why she had revealed so much private information in her lyrics, Adele explained that she wanted to reassure people going through similar experiences.
“Music helps me in many situations, and I would like to do the same for people… to be reminded that they’re not alone.
The singer told Winfrey that the “biggest wound” she’d suffered as a child was the “absolute lack of presence and effort” from her father, Marc Evans.
Although they were estranged for many years, father and daughter reconciled over the last three years, after Evans became seriously ill. Her dad at the time had confessed that he had only listened to her first song ‘Hometown Glory’ and couldn’t listen to the others because it was too painful.
In the end, she managed to play him all of her new album over Zoom, shortly before he died in April.
The US prime-time special marked her first TV interview about her new album. During the concert, Adele premiered three new songs from her forthcoming album titled ‘30’ – ‘I Drink Wine’, ‘Love Is A Game’ and ‘Hold On’.
Attended by stars like Lizzo, James Corden and Melissa McCarthy, the twilight concert was the first time Adele’s young son, Angelo, had seen her perform live.
The music was interspersed with interview clips, recorded in the same California rose garden where Winfrey spoke to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry earlier this year.
