Adele opens up about body shaming after weight loss: 'That hurt my feelings'

'You don’t need to be overweight to be body positive, you can be any shape or size,' the singer said in her 'British Vogue' interview

Adele on the November cover of British 'Vogue'

Adele has opened up about the body shaming she has faced after her reported 45-kilogram weight loss.

The British singer is set to make her return with new music next week. As she prepares for the release of Easy On Me next Friday, she spoke to British Vogue in a candid conversation about her life while she was largely out of the public eye for the last five years.

"I have to sort of gear myself up to be famous again, which famously I don’t really like being," she told Vogue's Giles Hattersley, before the chat turns to her weight loss, which she says "was over a two-year period."

"People are shocked because I didn’t share my 'journey,'" the singer said. "They’re used to people documenting everything on Instagram, and most people in my position would get a big deal with a diet brand. I couldn’t [care less]. I did it for myself and not anyone else. So why would I ever share it? I don’t find it fascinating. It’s my body."

Adele explained that she originally started working out for her anxiety, saying she got addicted to it as it was time without her phone and she "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," she said. "I needed to get addicted to something to get my mind right."

I lost weight for myself and not anyone else. So why would I ever share it?

Adele

Breaking down her vigorous workout schedule, she said: "So I do my weights in the morning, then I normally hike or I box in the afternoon, and then I go and do my cardio at night. I was basically unemployed when I was doing it. And I do it with trainers."

Aware of the fact so many hours in the gym are not feasible for the masses, she said: "It’s not doable for a lot of people."

Speaking about the public's "ownership" of her body throughout her career, she said: "People have been talking about my body for 12 years. They used to talk about it before I lost weight. But yeah, whatever, I don’t care.

"You don’t need to be overweight to be body positive, you can be any shape or size."

Adele also features on the November 2021 cover of US 'Vogue'. Photo: Vogue

The mother-of-one spoke about her diet with Hattersley and the false stories about people claiming to have trained her or guided her on her fitness journey, after her separation and divorce from her charity executive ex-husband Simon Konecki.

"You know a hundred per cent of the stories written about me have been absolutely fake. The people that came out being like, ‘I trained her,’ I’ve never met in my life. It’s disgusting. I cannot get over it. Some Pilates lady I’ve never met in my life! And I haven’t done any diet," Adele said. "Ain’t done that. No intermittent fasting. Nothing. If anything I eat more than I used to because I work out so hard.

"And also, that whole thing of like, ‘Gets Revenge Body’… Oh my god," she said. "It’s ridiculous. I think it’s that people love to portray a divorced woman as spinning out of control, like, ‘Oh she must be crackers' ... Because what is a woman without a husband?” A statement Hattersley said she punctuated with "the most amazing instinctive hair flick".