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Adele and Simon Konecki: The Truth About Their Divorce

The famously private singer has recently opened up about their split.
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Adele will not be going easy on our emotions as she releases her first studio album in six years. The new album – titled 30 – has just dropped today, and is set to chronicle her painful split and divorce from Simon Konecki. 

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The first words uttered on the album are “I’ll be taking flowers to the cemetery of my heart, for all of my lovers in the present and in the dark.” While the final lyrics Adele belts out are “You know I’m gonna do it again.” That should tell you all you need to know about the album that will absolutely wreck all of our hearts. But, a more in-depth look at what she’s said of her split awaits… 

The famously private singer has been uncharacteristically chatty of late, opening up like never before in interviews with Vogue and a sit-down exclusive with Oprah Winfrey.

The 33-year-old star admits that her split from her 47-year-old husband was devastating. Most of all, because it hurt their son Angelo.

“I was just so disappointed for my son. I was so disappointed for myself, and I thought I was gonna be the one that stopped doing those bloody patterns all the time,” Adele told Oprah in her interview, set to air on Channel Seven later this week.

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“If I can reach the reason why I left, which was the pursuit of my own happiness, even though it made Angelo really unhappy — if I can find that happiness and he sees me in that happiness, then maybe I’ll be able to forgive myself for it,” she added, in her interview with Vogue.

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Adele has opened up about her split in a series of revealing interviews. (Credit: Instagram) (Credit: Instagram)

In those new interviews, Adele has revealed she was miserable in her marriage – but not because of any wrongdoing on Simon’s part. The singer admits they just weren’t working and she wasn’t happy. But along with her emotional quotes on heartbreak and their split, Adele has detailed surprising details about their relationship that she’s never shared before.

So, why did they break up after being married for such a short amount of time, and what has their relationship been like since their separation? Adele tells all…

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Love At First Sight

Adele met Simon, the CEO of a charity, in mid-2011. They’ve been relatively lowkey about the private details of their relationship up until now, so not much is known about their courtship. But it was clear they fell head over heels for one another quickly.

The Hello singer has recently opened up about when they met and claims Simon ‘saved’ her at a pivotal point in her life. In 2011, Adele had just released her heartbreaking album 21 and was catapulted to a level of fame she could not have dreamed of.

“I think Simon probably saved my life, to be honest with you,” Adele said in her exclusive interview with Oprah. “He came at such a moment, where the stability that him and Angelo have given me, no one else would ever have been able to give me.

“Especially at that time, I was so young and I just, I think I would have got a bit lost in all of it,” she continued. “I could have easily gone down some dodgy paths, you know? And sort of self-destructed from being overwhelmed by all of it.

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“He came in and was stable. The most stable person I’ve ever had in my life up until that point. Even now, I trust him with my life.”

adele and her ex husband simon konecki
Adele met Simon in 2011, welcoming a baby boy in 2012. (Credit: Getty Images) (Credit: Getty Images)

Marriage and a Baby

The couple welcomed their son, Angelo, in October 2012 after one year of dating. The singer said becoming a mother gave her a purpouse and made her feel like she was “truly living.”

Keeping him out of the spotlight, Adele and Simon were sure to make their family life private while Angelo was still young. Instead, Adele simply sang about her experiences of love and motherhood on her critically acclaimed album 25 – released in November, 2015.

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In her songs Remedy and Sweetest Devotion, Adele spoke about her life with heartwarming lyrics, like…

“I’ve been looking for you, baby / In every face that I’ve ever known / And there is something ’bout the way you love me / That finally feels like home,” and The sweetest devotion / Hitting me like an explosion / All of my life, I’ve been frozen / The sweetest devotion I’ve known.”

So sweet! The duo were rumoured to have wed in early 2017 but didn’t exactly confirm the news. Instead, Adele simply referred to Simon as her “husband” in an acceptance speech at the 59th Grammy Awards and that was that. Except it wasn’t.

WATCH: Adele and Oprah meet for their exclusive interview. Story continues after video.

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In the new interview with Vogue, Adele confirmed they had tied the knot in 2018 when she was 30 years old and said the press “got it wrong” by reporting she had wed Simon in 2017. Regarding the speech, she says: “I always called him my husband, because we had a kid together.”

“We got married when I was 30… and then I left,” she said, before saying she would not “go into that detail” about how long after her marriage they separated. “Remember I am embarrassed. This is very embarrassing. It wasn’t very long.”

Separation and Divorce

Reports that Adele and Simon had split surfaced in early 2019 – though it seems they split shortly after marrying, possibly in 2018. Adele’s reps confirmed the news in April 2019, with the singer officially filing for divorce in September of that year.

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“Adele and her partner have separated. They are committed to raising their son together lovingly. As always, they ask for privacy. There will be no further comment,” her people said at the time.

Adele confirmed to Vogue that “nothing bad” had gone down between her and Simon, but she was just “miserable.” Going on to clarify she wasn’t “miserable miserable” but “would have been had I not put myself first.”

The divorce was finalised earlier this year, after a lengthy court process. A judge ruled the details of the costly split would remain secret in April, 2020, with rumours rife that the split might cost Adele half her £140 million fortune. However, in March 2021 the Associated Press reported that Adele and Simon would share custody of Angelo and that the singer would not be paying spousal or child support.

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Adele tells Oprah about her relationship breakdown in an exclusive interview. (Credit: Channel Seven) (Credit: Channel Seven)
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In the Oprah interview, Adele said “I’ve been obsessed with the nuclear family my whole life because I never came from one. In all these movies and all these books, when you grow up reading them, that’s what it should be. I just, from a very young age, promised myself that when I had kids, that we’d stay together. We would be that united family. And I tried for a really, really long time.”

In her cover story with Vogue, Adele explained that she lives near Simon and shares custody of Angelo with him. She also revealed that they often host family movie nights and says Simon is “not one of my exes. He’s the dad of my child.”

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She’s had nothing but kind words for Simon in her recent interviews, but the reality of a heartbreak record is that it won’t always paint your ex-partner in the most flattering light.

With all the new music dropping today on November 19, we’ve just had our first listen of songs like I Drink Wine, Hold On and Woman Like Me. And they’re not all rosy. In particular, Hold On details the chaotic energy of going through divorce with Adele calling the process exhausting.

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“Sometimes loneliness is the only rest we get / And the emptiness actually lets us forget,” she sings on the track.

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Adele’s One Night Only performance gives fans a glimpse of the album to come. (Credit: Channel Seven) (Credit: Channel Seven)

Meanwhile, Woman Like Me features scorching lyrics about a ‘lazy’ partner who doesn’t ‘care’ about the relationship any more. Though, it might not be about Simon.

Adele also dated the UK rapper Skepta in October 2019, months after her split from her ex-husband and before she moved on with her current partner. Let’s just say the lyrics on the track are not very kind. 

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“Complacency is the worst trait to have, are you crazy? / It is so sad a man like you could be so lazy,” she sings, later adding: “Now some other man will get the love I have for you / ’Cos you don’t care.”

It’s an epic song and we’ll absolutely be playing it on repeat. But, has Simon heard the album yet?

According to Adele, he hasn’t. In her interview with Oprah she said he was yet to listen to the tracks, but added with a shrug: “He knows what kind of artist I am.”

Adele’s New Love

She might be about to rip us all to shreds emotionally with lovesick ballads, but in real life Adele is doing just fine right now. The star fell in love with sports agent Rich Paul, with the couple confirming their romance in mid-2021.

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The romance began when Rich invited Adele to a “business meeting,” with the singer telling Oprah she wasn’t buying it.

Adele said her initial reaction was, “A business meeting about what? It was just the first time we’d hung out only on our own, and not with other friends and stuff like that.”

She continued on to tell the host that Rich is “hilarious and very smart. You know, he’s very, very smart. It’s quite incredible watching him do what he does. And just the easiness of [the relationship]. It’s just, it’s been very smooth.”

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Rich Paul was present for Adele and Oprah’s explosive chat. (Credit: Instagram) (Credit: Instagram)
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Though Adele speaks highly of her ex Simon, she says being with Paul is the first time she’s “loved myself and been open to loving and being loved by someone else.”

“It’s just timing,” she told Oprah. “But it’d be interesting to see what my reaction is like in general to anything that hurts me now that I feel so secure in myself, and I’m talking outside of romance as well.”

Swoon!

Adele 30 will be released November 19, 2021. Adele One Night Only and the Oprah Interview will air on Channel Seven and 7Plus on Sunday, November 21, at 7pm.

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