The story behind Adele's first song in six years as LIZ JONES and ALISON ...

She's the singing superstar who took fright at global fame a decade ago and retreated into a reclusive life of luxury.

But now, with the release of Easy On Me, her first single from the album 30, Adele is allowing just a glimpse inside her very private A-list life. 

From her less-than-a-year-long marriage to her passion for exercise, astrology and Percy Pigs, ALISON BOSHOFF reports...

She gave up on her marriage within a year 

Adele and Simon Konecki started dating in 2011. Documents filed to court suggest that they were married on the eve of her 30th birthday, in May 2018. Her Titanic-themed 30th birthday party was actually a wedding celebration.

She’s said: ‘We got married when I was 30 . . . and then I left. I’m not gonna go into that detail. Remember I am embarrassed. This is very embarrassing. It wasn’t very long.’

They announced their separation in April 2019, less than a year on, but she said she made the announcement ‘much later’ than the split actually happened.

She told one interviewer that the intro to her break-up anthem, Easy On Me, came to her in the shower in 2018, meaning the relationship was all over within seven months at the most.

‘I was just going through the motions and I wasn’t happy,’ she said. ‘Neither of us did anything wrong. Neither of us hurt each other or anything like that. It was just: I want my son to see me really love, and be loved. It’s really important to me. I’ve been on my journey to find my true happiness ever since.’

In a Radio 1 interview, she admitted to starting fiery rows with Konecki, now 47, after the relationship broke down.

Guidance from gurus and astrology

She says her divorce was a result of planetary upheaval. When talking about the past six years, she cited her ‘Saturn return’, meaning that the planet had returned to the position it was in when she was born. She also showed a tattoo on her wrist of Saturn, with LA in the middle of it.

She explained: ‘I hit my Saturn return. It’s where I lost the plot. When that comes, it can rock your life. It shakes you up a bit: Who am I? What do I want to do? What makes me truly happy? All those things.’

She also confirms that she is close to wellness guru Jedidiah Jenkins, who took her swimming in a lake — fully clothed — and an ocean.

Jenkins, the writer of self-help book To Shake The Sleeping Self, recounts their meeting three years ago, at a mutual friend’s house in LA.

‘She sauntered over during brunch with half a bottle of Whispering Angel,’ he said. She told him: ‘Jed, I haven’t hung out with a group of strangers in 11 years. Will you take me to a party where I don’t know anyone?

‘I haven’t been in the ocean since I was ten. I’ve never been in a lake.’ They went on holiday to Idaho and spent a weekend in Santa Barbara.

Lots of therapy and looking after herself

Adele said she had a ‘Year of Anxiety’ in 2019 and had ‘a lot of sound baths . . . a lot of meditation . . . a lot of therapy, and a lot of time on my own’.

She added: ‘My therapist told me that I had to sit with my little seven-year-old self. Because she was left on her own. And I needed to go sit with her and really address how I felt when I was growing up. And issues with my dad. Which I’d been avoiding.

‘Not being sure if someone who is supposed to love you loves you, and doesn’t prioritise you in any capacity when you’re little, you assume it and get used to it.

‘So my relationship with men in general, my entire life, has always been: You’re going to hurt me, so I’ll hurt you first.

‘It’s just toxic and prevents me from actually finding any happiness.’

Jay-Z's trainer has transformed her

Adele credits her extraordinary 100 lb weight loss not to dieting but to personal trainer Gregg Miele, whom she sees virtually every day at the Heart & Hustle gym in West Hollywood.

Miele is also a qualified holistic therapist and advises on nutrition. He spent five years travelling the world with Jay-Z, a friend of Adele via wife Beyonce, and working on his fitness. He calls himself a ‘creative mind’ with ‘hustler ambition’ and ‘gorilla spirit.’

Among the other celebrities he has trained are Jessica Alba and some NBA stars — an intriguing link because Adele’s boyfriend, Rich Paul, is an NBA sports agent.

She’s said: ‘I realised that when I was working out, I didn’t have any anxiety. It was never about losing weight. I thought, “If I can make my body physically strong . . . then maybe one day I can make my emotions and my mind physically strong.” ’

She added: ‘I got quite addicted to it. I work out two or three times a day.’

She does weights in the morning, hiking or boxing in the afternoon, and a cardio session in the evening with personal trainers. Her workouts have to take into account two slipped discs and the aftermath of a caesarean delivery. 

Son Angelo is on her new record

Son Angelo, eight, is centre stage on the album, which will come out next month. In one song she calls him ‘my little love’.

Angelo’s voice will be heard talking with his mother between verses in conversations that were recorded ‘at her therapist’s suggestion’.

The song ends with a tearful voicemail she left for a friend.

Why expose herself and her family this way? ‘I thought it might be a nice touch, seeing as everyone’s been at my door for the last ten years, as a fan, to be like, “Would you like to come in?” ’

Her friends take centre stage too

She invited some friends to sing a refrain, ‘Just hold on’, in one song. She explained: ‘The thing that they’re all singing is what my friends used to say to me. That’s why I wanted them to sing it, rather than an actual choir.’

This choir includes Jedidiah Jenkins. He said: ‘She quickly became a choir director, waving her hands and giving us the motivation of our words. And, of course, calling me out: “Jed, it’s not your album, blend in more.” ’ 

She's still climbing her mountain

Adele had a tattoo of a mountain range added to her right wrist in 2019 after a ‘sobbing’ meltdown conversation with a friend in her late-40s who lives nearby in LA.

She said: ‘I told my friend, “I feel like I’m on a steep mountain, trying to get up to the top.” And she was like, “You will get there. And you’ll have a nice leisurely stroll down. And then there’ll be another f****** mountain.” And I’m like, “I’m not even over this one yet.” And she was like, “That’s just life.” ’ 

And who is her ex, Konecki?

The grandson of a Polish radio operator, Simon Konecki was raised in moneyed comfort by parents Andrew and Rosemary, who now live in Switzerland. 

He went to Eton College until he was 14 and was known as one of the naughtiest boys in his house.

He worked as a foreign exchange broker and at Lehman Brothers, before getting sick of the ‘corrupted’ world of finance and setting up a mineral water business and charity. 

He was married to stylist Clary Fisher and they had a daughter, Georgie, in 2006.

He met Adele in 2011 and son Angelo was born in 2012. In the early years, Adele talked about his ‘brilliance’ and said he was her ‘soulmate and best mate’.

However, by the time they finally married in 2018, it seems that the romance was in crisis.

But they still do ‘regular family movie nights’ — both of their houses have cinema rooms.

 Sorry, the agony of divorce deserves a better ballad

By Liz Jones for the Daily Mail  

Oh, the anticipation! Adele’s first single in six years is about divorce. Great, I thought. She knows what it’s like for those of us who have gone through hell.

If even a woman who is young, beautiful, rich, funny and talented can fail at marriage, then maybe those of us, like me, who also failed won’t feel quite so bad. 

We can take comfort in her soaring voice and shared pain.

At midnight on Thursday, women who have been cuckolded, disappointed, had the best years of our lives stolen from us (you can tell I’m still bitter) were going to be able to put on our headphones, or kneel by a speaker, and finally feel understood, heard, hugged.

But I’ve felt more solace, solidarity and sisterhood watching Married At First Sight Australia. Where’s the pain, where’s the insight? Goodness, even in the video there are no tears. 

She just leaves with a suitcase, when we all know real-life divorce, even her so-called amicable one, is far messier than that.

All we get are cryptic messages when what we want is someone to make sense of what we are feeling — or what we have felt.   

I was able to glean from the lyrics that she was too young to get married, and that she and her husband were set in their ways. 

She tried to change, for him and for their son, but she gave up. And, err, that’s it.

There are no embarrassing admissions to strike a chord with fellow divorcees. Me? I kept buying him things, endured the pain of veneers, had spray tans. Adele has attained a revenge body, but won’t admit it. 

She says she exercises three times a day to get away from her phone. If she were honest, it would be as uplifting as the corset into which Vogue squeezed her for its cover picture.

Because we women do that, don’t we, after a divorce? Put on make-up and a new dress when he comes to pick up the kids. In my case, I got a new face and even bigger success, just to rub his nose in it. 

Every relationship is different, but divorce is often messy and always difficult. Where’s Adele’s frustration, the hurt?

She says she wrote the song to explain to her son Angelo, eight, why his parents don’t live together, and asks him not to blame her when he’s older — hence the title, Easy On Me. But the problem here lies with her Me, Me, Me attitude. Even as a teenager, wanting to make it in the music industry, which is when I first met her, she was bolshy and self-entitled.

First, she cancelled our interview. When she re-scheduled, she didn’t apologise, just chain-smoked, said she was going to take a few months off to spend time with friends, and sod what her record company bosses might think.

She said in this month’s Vogue that she wasn’t ‘miserable miserable, but I would have been miserable had I not put myself first. But nothing bad happened or anything like that’.

That level of perfection isn’t what marriage is about. You have to bend over backwards sometimes. If I’ve learned nothing else from my failed marriage, it’s that you both must compromise.

Truthfully, I just don’t see the depths of my divorce — the shame, the shouting — in hers. I wanted the greatest female songwriter of the 21st century to make sense of the break-up of a marriage, to be on my side. 

I thought this song was going to be the relationship take-down to end all relationship take-downs. Give us the gory details! She is one of us, after all. Or at least she was.

We have to bear in mind she is now one of the most secretive stars on the planet, and I suppose she isn’t angry (or stupid) enough to bare her soul, or her ex-husband’s peccadilloes, on record. Problem is, this doesn’t produce great art.

Adele says that if a couple plays her new, long-awaited album, 30, in the car, they will cringe in recognition. The woman will say, ‘I’m done.’

Well, I’m done with this record, even though her voice and the music are beautiful.

Adele, like you, I’ve been through one of life’s most earth-shattering experiences. I need you. So where on earth are you? If you want to obfuscate, write about something trivial, such as whiskers on kittens and warm woollen mittens.

Divorce deserves a better ballad

It's another belter

By Adrian Thrills for the Daily Mail  

Adele: Easy on me (Columbia)

Verdict: Classy and confessional 

Rating:

Easy On Me is now here — and it’s the kind of yearning, happy-sad ballad that has been Adele’s stock-in-trade ever since she wowed the nation at the Brits ten years ago.

Opening with mellow piano chords and a softly sung first verse, this comeback builds gracefully, with stunning vocal twists.

As Adele bares her soul over three minutes and 44 seconds, there’s tender restraint amid the power. What an exceptional singer she is.

Having described the period since her last album, 25, as a ‘maze of absolute mess and inner turmoil’, she wastes no time in confronting her woes in song. The upheaval of her 2019 divorce from ex-husband Simon Konecki, and its impact on young son Angelo, clearly weighs heavily.

‘I was still a child, didn’t get the chance to feel the world around me,’ she admits. The overall tone might be one of regret, but there’s also something uplifting here. It’s easy to envisage her millions of fans singing this song back to her in a packed stadium.

In 2019, she joked her next release was going to be ‘a drum and bass record, to spite you all’. I wouldn’t rule out a few surprises on her fourth album, 30, out on November 19 — but on big ballads like this, it’s clear she’s still pitch-perfect.

Thanks, Adele — it was worth the wait.

Adele breaks the internet! New single Easy On Me becomes Spotify's most streamed song in a single day EVER - as tracks tops iTunes charts and racks up more than 34 million YouTube views within 20 hours - with fans left sobbing

Adele's new single Easy On Me has topped the charts in the UK and US and racked up a whopping 34 million views on YouTube after just 20 hours. 

Spotify also revealed on Friday the track has set a new record by becoming the most-streamed song in a single day ever, with a tweet captioned: 'and just like that @adele set a new record.' 

The singer, 33, left her fans in tears as she finally released her first new track in five years - which reflects on the pain she felt amid her divorce from husband Simon Konecki.

The highly-anticipated single, released on YouTube at midnight on Friday ahead of her album 30 set to drop next month, soon shot to YouTube's top trending clip.  

Along with the music video - which sees the star, 33, pack up her house and drive away, as pages of sheet music flutter out of the windows onto the road - the single went down a storm with fans who took to Twitter to claim it was giving them 'goosebumps' and making them 'sob' - with one going as far to claim it made them want to get a divorce themselves. 

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Adele revealed this week that Easy On Me, as well as 30, will be about the 'inner turmoil' she felt as she divorced ex-husband Simon.

The lyrics include the lines, 'We're both so deeply stuck in our ways, you can't deny how hard I've tried. I changed who I was to put you both first,' as well as, 'Go easy on me. I was still a child, didn't get the chance to feel the world around me, had no time to choose, what I chose to do, so go easy on me...'

She chants: 'I had good intentions and high hopes but I know it now probably doesn't even show.'

The video transfers from a black and white filter to colour halfway through, and starts with the singer on the phone, telling someone she's on her way and that she might lose signal.   

The clip immediately drew parallels with the video for her 2015 hit, Hello, in which she moved into the house that features in Easy On Me.

However, eagle-eyed fans pointed out that the connection goes as far back to her 2018 song, Chasing Pavements and has a link to her 2011 single, Rolling In The Deep.

Taking to Twitter, one fan pointed out: 'adele chased pavements in her hometown thank walk to someones house. than built a house in rolling in the deep, she moved in that house in hello and left the house in easy on me. a story teller!! #EasyOnMe [sic]'. 

Another penned: 'Adele’s new song = goosebumps! Never in doubt of that queen!'

Another agreed: 'Goosebumps listening to that new Adele drop. What a beautiful song man!'

A third chimed in: 'Literally goosebumps all over, Adele is just incredible! Literally goosebumps all over my body!!'

Another joked, 'Currently crying and throwing up at this new Adele!' as someone else agreed: 'Adele really got us single ass people crying over a breakup that never happened!'

Others penned, 'One minute into the new Adele song and I started sobbing,' and: 'If the rest of Adele’s album is like “Easy on me”, I will most definitely be sobbing the entire time!' 

Another impassioned fan wrote: 'I love the fact that Adele chose a side profile for her cover art because it makes it all so much more beautifully vulnerable... this will be a devastating but tender and honest album, and I'm already sobbing with sadness and joy all at once!' 

Fans were quick to joke that while the single may have been called Easy On Me, Adele hadn't taken it with the easy with the vocals and lyrics, which left them blown away. 

Other listeners quipped that they were pretending to be divorced in order to relate to the break up inspired song while some discussed having very strong physical reactions to the track, joking they were 'shaking, crying and throwing up'.

Another notable meme came in the form of fans joking that the video was a continuation of her video for 2015's Hello - in which the singer also belted out a ballad while roaming around an empty house.  

However, not everyone was a fan, with several Twitter users complaining that they found the song boring. 

They penned: 'Unpopular but I don’t like Adele’s new song. In fact sounds like every other song she brings out. A bit boring tbh.'; 'Unpopular opinion: Adele’s new song sounds the same as her others. It’s boring. She’s too predictable. *ducks for cover*'

'how are people stanning new adele... it's so boring and predictable... no growth in how many years???'; 

'Adele is an amazing singer but her content is extremely one dimensional and boring. We get it. He broke your heart. Haven’t you had any other life experiences?'; 

'wasn't expecting anything upbeat and fun from adele but that song is boring as hell and feels like a huge step down from hello'.

As for the professional critics, they all responded positively to the new single.

'It's not a heartbreak anthem as much as a tentatively hopeful ballad from a woman emerging from an emotionally marooned period,' NPR's Latesha Harris said of the song. 

While Forbes said the song could be summed up as 'spectacular,' Rolling Stone said that the singer's comeback song has 'reduced the world to tears' . 

And the BBC described the song as 'a big woolly blanket wrapped around the loneliness and pain of anyone who's been through a core-shaking break-up.'  

Shortly after dropping the single, Adele appeared on various radio shows to plug her new album.  

The award-winning singer revealed she bares her soul on her new record, as it reflects the 'inner turmoil' she felt following the breakdown of her marriage, and forced to 'unlock' the door to her mental health.  

Appearing on BBC Radio 2 on Friday morning, Adele confessed she 'lost sight' of making music while going through her divorce, but it helped her to come to terms with how she was feeling.  

Speaking honestly about the recording process, Adele told host Zoe Ball: 'It was bloody hard work to make. I was singing things I didn't even realise I was feeling or thinking, but I'm really proud of it.'  

She continued: 'I can't unlock a key to the door with my mental health and take it with me, I've got to leave it in the door for everyone else... I'm in a strong place to put that vulnerability out... I'm really proud of it.'  

Having previously described her divorce as the 'most turbulent period of her life', Adele confessed: 'I feel like I lost sight and lost the appreciation of what a gift it is to make music. 

'I got a bit frightened of it for a while, but it really took care of me. I don't know what my outlet would have been had I not had it... It was bloody hard work to make emotionally.' 

As well as Radio 2, Adele zoomed in for the Hits Radio Breakfast show as she spoke with Fleur East about how son Angelo feels about having a famous mum 

The singer told Fleur that the album is about her son, she said: 'The whole album is sort of dedicated to my son more than anything, but yeah it's about my relationship with his dad and with him, but also you know the relationship I have with myself and stuff like that.

She continued: 'It's like you could be in you know, discussion or disagreement or a full-blown row if you want, not that me and his dad ever used to do that.

'If you're the one that's sort of initiating the discussion, it'd sort of be like, "well hang on a minute, go easy on me, you know, it's not my fault." So it's just sort of really about that in the way that, you know, the decision that I made really, so yeah.'

The singer also shared how Angelo – who turns nine this weekend - feels about her celebrity-status. She said: 'He's into like gamers, like he likes Flamingo and all them lot, like I mean yeah he ain't bothered by me at all.

'He does not care at all. He is like "you're so busy all the time now, like blah-blah". But no he doesn't care and he's always comparing. The other day he was telling me how many YouTube followers I have is nowhere near as many as the big gamers. I was like, "okay cheers kid, thanks for that." Again no he's not really aware of it yet.'

She continued: 'He's coming to a couple of, sort of work things that I have coming up and we'll see, but I'm sure he'll just be like, "well I think Flamingo will have done it like this or like that." Like, yeah but he's great, he's a lot of fun, he's a very lovely, lovely little boy.'

Elsewhere in the interview, Adele revealed her touring plans, saying 'I'd love to do a big proper tour again. I wouldn't do it quite as long as I did it last time, it was something like 130 odd shows in less than 18 months but, I would love to do that. 

'But all the Covid rules are so different everywhere, and sort of like the rates of infection, the rates of vaccine whatever, it's just, it makes me nervous trying to plan a world tour globally when it feels like no-one's really on the same page. And the last thing I would ever want to do is cancel any shows again.'  

Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, Adele confirmed the new album's release date will be November 19, adding a lengthy note in which she explained that she finally felt ready to release her music.

She wrote: 'I was certainly nowhere to near where I'd hoped to be when I first started it nearly 3 years ago.

'Quite the opposite actually. I rely on routine and consistency to feel safe, I always have. And yet there I was knowingly - willingly even, throwing myself into a maze of absolute mess and inner turmoil!

'I've learned a lot of blistering home truths about myself along the way. I've shed many layers but also wrapped myself in new ones.

'Discovered genuinely useful and wholesome materials to lead with, and I felt like I've finally found my feeling again. I'd go as far to say that I've never felt this peaceful in my life.' 

Adele told how she sought support from the album writing process, which left her 'sobbing relentlessly'.

She wrote: 'And so, I'm ready to finally put this album out. It was my ride or die throughout the most turbulent period of my life. When I was writing it, it was my friend who came over with a bottle of wine and a takeaway to cheer me up.

'My wise friend who always gives the best advice. Not to forget the one who's wild and says "It's your Saturn babes f**k it, you only live once".

'The friend who'd stay up all night and just hold my while I'd sob relentlessly not knowing why. The get up and go friend who would pick me up and take me out somewhere I said I didn't want to go but just wanted to get me out the house for some vitamin D. 

'That friend who snuck in and left a magazine with a face mask and some bath salts to make me feel loved while inadvertently reminding me not only what month it actually was but that I should probably exercise some self care.

'And then that friend who no matter what, checked in on me even thought I'd stopped checking in with them because I'd become so consumed by my own grief.

'I've painstakingly rebuilt my house and my heart since then and this album narrates it. Home is where the heart is x'.

Adele and charity CEO Simon, 47, announced they were going their separate ways in April 2019, with Adele filing court documents five months later. 

The couple - who dated for seven years and were married for two - co-parent their son Angelo, eight.

Their divorce was finalised in March this year, and Simon is believed to live in one of the three houses on Adele's Beverly Hills compound so that he can be close to Angelo.

News of the album release date comes after Adele shared a first look at the single cover for Easy On Me on Tuesday.

The Someone Like You songstress looked stunning in the black and white teaser shot that was shared to her Instagram with the caption: 'Easy On Me - October 15 - Midnight UK.'

Adele sent fans into meltdown when she played a clip of the song during her very first Instagram live stream on Saturday.

The star, who admitted she would get into trouble by her management, pressed play on the track in which she

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