Pop star Adele poured her heart out to Oprah Winfrey in a much-anticipated interview that was shown in the US on Sunday night.
Discussing everything from her much talked about weight loss to struggles of divorce and becoming a single parent, the record-breaking British singer revealed to the US talk show queen that it was "terrifying anxiety attacks" after the divorce that prompted her to lose more than 45 kilograms.
Filmed in Winfrey's rose garden, the two-hour special was interspersed with a pre-recorded performance by Adele at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. In March, Winfrey filmed her bombshell interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in a similar Montecito garden location.
The star-studded show, to promote her coming album 30, was attended by the likes of Drake, Kris Jenner, Ellen DeGeneres, Lizzo, James Corden and Melissa McCarthy as well as the singer's young son, Angelo, 9.
"It's the absolute honour of my life, baby, to have you here tonight," the singer said to her son at the show where, in true Adele style, she helped a man propose to his girlfriend as she serenaded them with her Bob Dylan cover, Make You Feel My Love.
The special, Adele One Night Only, will be available on Anghami in the Mena region from Friday, the day the singer's fourth studio album, 30, is scheduled to be released worldwide.
Another primetime special concert, filmed at the London Palladium called An Audience With Adele, will be broadcast on ITV in the UK next Sunday.
Here are some of the things we learnt from Adele's interview with Winfrey:
She doesn't care what people think about her weight loss
Adele's appearance has been the subject of much scrutiny over the past two years, but she told Winfrey she wasn't "shocked or even fazed".
"I had the most terrifying anxiety attacks after I left my marriage. They paralysed me completely, and made me so confused because I wouldn't be able to have any control over my body," she said.
Adele said she started going to the gym every day after noticing it helped her cope better with anxiety.
"My body has been objectified my entire career. I'm either too big or too small; I'm either hot or I'm not," she told Winfrey.
"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."
She was embarrassed about her divorce
Adele filed for divorce from her husband Simon Konecki in 2019, one year after they got married.
The singer said she was "embarrassed" about her split and "disappointed" for herself and her son, Angelo.
"I've been obsessed with a nuclear family my whole life because I never came from one," she said. "From a very young age, I promised myself that when I had kids we'd stay together and we would be that united family and I tried for a really, really long time.
"I was just so disappointed for my son, I was disappointed for myself."
Adele and her ex-husband are still friends
Despite the divorce, Adele and her ex-husband Konecki remain on good terms, and live across the street from each other in Los Angeles, where they co-parent their son.
She credited Konecki with "saving her life" after she became famous.
"The stability that he and Angelo have given me, no one else would have ever been able to give me, especially at that time in my life. I was so young," she said. "I could easily have gone down some pretty dodgy paths and sort of self-destructed.
"Even now I trust [Konecki] with my life. I think they were angels sent to me, that's how I feel."
She didn't discuss the new album with Konecki, but said "he knows what kind of artist I am. That I have to dig deep to tell my stories."
Her album '30' is dedicated to son Angelo
Adele told Winfrey she felt "very uncomfortable" dismantling her son's life with the divorce, but could not ignore her own happiness. The new album is a way to show him "who I am", she said.
"I was ignoring my own happiness and I knew that, as an adult, Angelo would be livid with me for doing that," she said. "When he became an adult he'd be furious with me, and I didn't want that either.
"The whole album is not about him, it's about me and I just wanted him to hear me talking madly deeply about who I am and how I feel. I don't know if I'll ever be able to have that conversation with him in real life, so he can go and listen to it."
Her son is 'a bit' aware of her fame
The live performance at Griffith Observatory was the first time Adele's son Angelo had seen her perform live to a crowd.
The singer told Winfrey she took him to see Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018 and saw his jaw drop.
"He used to come to my stadium shows for rehearsals and it'd be empty," she said, laughing.
But Angelo recently got a glimpse of his mother's popularity.
"The other day, he watched the Easy On Me video countdown ... and he was like, 'There was 150,000 people waiting!' Then he read the comments and he was like, 'People really like you!'.
"So he's starting to get it a little bit, but not really."
She reconciled with her father before he died
Adele and her father Mark Evans were estranged for many years, but the pair reconciled after Evans became seriously ill about three years ago.
"I had absolutely zero expectations of anybody, because I learnt not to have them through my dad," she told Winfrey, saying that her father's absence during her childhood was one of her "biggest wounds".
"He was the reason I haven't fully accessed what it is to be in a loving relationship with somebody," she said.
She told Winfrey that the strained relationship haunted her father even after they started talking.
"He never ever played any of my other music," she said. "He was like, 'It's too painful.'"
But she managed to play him the new album over Zoom, before he died in April.
"His favourites were all of my favourites, which was amazing. He was proud of me for doing it. So it was very, very healing [and] when he died, it was literally like the wound closed up," she said.
Scroll through the gallery below for Adele's style evolution:
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Adele, in a tunic and black jeans, arrives at the Brit Awards at Earls Court on February 20, 2008 in London, England. Getty Images -
Adele, in a checked coat, arrives at an afterparty following the premiere of 'Sex and the City' at Old Billingsgate on May 12, 2008 in London, England. Getty Images -
Adele, in Barbara Tfank, holds her two awards at the 51st annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California, on February 8, 2009. EPA -
Adele, in a black beaded dress, arrives at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards at Berkeley Square Gardens on June 2, 2009 in London, England. Getty Images -
Adele, in a black and gold brocade dress, attends the CMT Artists of the Year event at Liberty Hall on November 30, 2010 in Franklin, Tennessee. Getty Images -
Adele, in a black dress with embroidered overlay, attends the Brit Awards at the O2 Arena on February 15, 2011 in London, England. Getty Images -
Adele, in a classic LBD, arrives for the Echo Awards at Palais am Funkturm on March 24, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. Getty Images -
Adele, in Burberry, arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards at Nokia Theatre on August 28, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. Getty Images -
Adele, in Clements Ribeiro, attends the Mercury Prize at Grosvenor House on September 6, 2011 in London, England. Getty Images -
Adele, in Burberry, arrives for the 54th annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California, on February 12, 2012. EPA -
Adele, in Burberry, attends the Brit Awards at the O2 Arena on February 21, 2012 in London, England. Getty Images -
Adele, in a lace-trimmed midi, poses with her wins at the Brit Awards held at the O2 Arena in London, England, on February 21, 2012. EPA -
Adele, in Burberry, arrives for the 70th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California, on January 12, 2013. EPA -
Adele, in Valentino, arrives for the 55th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, on February 10, 2013. EPA -
Adele, in Jenny Packham, arrives at the 85th annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on February 24, 2013. EPA -
Adele, in Stella McCartney, with her MBE at Buckingham Palace on December 19, 2013 in London, England. Getty Images -
Adele, in Givenchy, arrives for the 58th annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California, on February 15, 2016. EPA -
Adele, in Giambattista Valli, attends the Brit Awards at the O2 Arena on February 24, 2016 in London, England. Getty Images -
Adele, in Valentino, poses in the winners room at the Brit Awards on February 24, 2016 in London, England. Getty Images -
Adele, in Burberry, performs at the Ziggo Dome on June 1, 2016 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Getty Images -
Adele, in Chloe, performs at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm on June 25, 2016 in Glastonbury, England. Getty Images -
Adele, in Givenchy, arrives for the 59th annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California, on February 12, 2017. EPA -
Adele, in Zuhair Murad, performs at Domain Stadium on February 28, 2017 in Perth, Australia. Getty Images -
Adele, in Elzinger, poses in a photograph to mark her 32nd birthday, posted to Instagram on May 6, 2020. Instagram / Adele -
Adele, in Marine Serre, posts a photo from her home on August 1, 2020. Photo: Instagram / Adele -
HER, Adele, in a velvet shirt, and Kate McKinnon film a promo video for 'Saturday Night Live' in New York, US on October 22, 2020. Getty Images -
Adele, in Brock Collection, appears on an episode of 'Saturday Night Live' on October 24, 2020. YouTube / NBC -
Adele, in a metallic gown, on the cover of British Vogue shared on October 7, 2021. Photo: Instagram / Adele, -
Adele, wearing Valentino Haute Couture, on the cover of US Vogue shared on October 7, 2021. Photo: Instagram / Adele -
Adele, in Chanel, during her 'Vogue 70 Questions' interview, which was released on October 21, 2021. Photo: YouTube / Vogue -
Adele, in a Christopher John Rogers suit, with Oprah Winfrey during her CBS interview released on November 14. Photo: Instragram / Oprah
