She’s been quiet for the past few years but last week Adele announced her comeback in spectacular fashion with not one, but two, Vogue covers. To coincide with the release of her new single Easy On Me and album, she appeared in both the US and British editions and opened up about everything including her divorce and the impact it had on her son, her much talked-about weight loss and her new boyfriend.
Speaking about her split from Simon Konecki, father of her nine-year-old son Angelo, Adele admitted she was “embarrassed” by how long their marriage lasted as they wed in 2018 and broke up not long after. And while she says ending the relationship was the right thing to do, she may never forgive herself for turning her son’s world upside down.
“I just felt like I wanted to explain to him, through this record, when he’s in his twenties or thirties, who I am and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness,” she told British Vogue. “It made him really unhappy sometimes. And that’s a real wound for me that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to heal.”
The 33 year old – who lives in LA with Angelo, while Simon has a house opposite – says she tries to be as open as possible with Angelo.
Speaking to US Vogue, she revealed, “He has so many simple questions for me that I can’t answer, because I don’t know the answer. Like, ‘Why can’t we still live together?’ That’s just not what people do when they get divorced. ‘But why not?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t fucking know. That’s not what society does. And: Why don’t you love my dad anymore?’ And I’d be like, ‘I do love your dad. I’m just not in love.’ I can’t make that make sense to a nine-year-old.”
She also praised Simon, saying she found the "perfect" man to have a child with, adding, "I'm fully aware of the irony of me being the heartbreak girl who found her person... And then, yeah... I fucked up. It didn't work."
In recent years, Adele has lost a reported 100lbs and while she admitted that she knew some women were “hurt” by her no longer being the poster girl for curvy women, she says her transformation wasn’t ever about losing weight.
“It was because of my anxiety,” she said. “Working out, I would just feel better. It was never about losing weight, it was always about becoming strong and giving myself as much time every day without my phone. I got quite addicted to it. I work out two or three times a day.”
Adele – who also revealed she made up with her estranged father before he died in May – is now loved up with sports agent Rich Paul, who she has been dating since the start of the year after meeting through mutual friends.
“I did date before Rich, but they hated it,” she said. “They’d find it stressful being out or seen with me, which meant that I guarded all of it beyond. It never evolved because we were never experiencing things together. Whereas he’s not frazzled by it at all. It feels like it’s consistent and considerate enough that I don’t care who knows.” She added, “He’s great. He’s so f**kng funny. He’s so smart…I’m a 33-year-old divorced mother of a son, who’s actually in charge. The last thing I need is someone who doesn’t know where they’re at, or what they want. I know what I want. And I really know what I don’t want.”
Read more in the latest issue of heat magazine - OUT NOW.