Adele has opened up about how her late father Mark Evans’ absence has shaped the way she has treated romantic partners during her adult life.
The singer, 33, said that she believes her ‘inevitable’ split from ex-husband Simon Konecki followed the pattern of the breakdown of her parents’ marriage.
During her CBS special Adele One Night Only with Oprah Winfrey, Adele said that she has ‘hurt’ partners first as a defense mechanism to avoid being hurt herself.
Honest: Adele has opened up about how her late father’s absence has shaped the way she has treated romantic partners during her life
Adele said her alcoholic father’s absence when she was a child had affected the way she navigated relationships as an adult.
‘I hurt the first, not in a malicious way, but protect herself,’ she said.
The singer, who is now dating sports agent Rich Paul, also talked about her divorce and how she felt ’embarrassed’ that her relationship with ex-husband Simon Konecki had failed, just as her parents’.
‘I take marriage very seriously and it seems like I don’t…That’s what it should be. When we have kids, we stay together, and I tried. I was so disappointed for my son, I was so disappointed for myself,’ she said.
Dad: The singer, 33, said that she believes her ‘inevitable’ split from ex-husband Simon Konecki followed the pattern of the breakdown of her parents’ marriage (pictured in 2019)
‘Nothing as scary as what I’ve been through in the past two years behind closed doors,’ she added.
After Oprah touched on Adele’s ‘interesting relationship’ with alcohol, the singer said her father’s death had made an impact in her lifestyle.
‘It [ Alcohol] took my dad from me,’ Adele said. ‘Once I realized I had to do a lot to work on myself, I stopped drinking and started working out a lot.’
Adele’s estranged father,Evans, died in May at the age of 57 after a long battle with bowel cancer.
She said she met with her father in Wales shortly before his death, and got closure after the heartbreak she suffered as a little girl due to Evan’s absence in her life.
‘My dad’s absolute lack of presence and effort. But I finally understood that it was the alcohol,’ she said.
Evans and his daughter famously fell out in 2011 when Evans – who walked out on the singer when she was a child – claimed in an interview that she struggled to find love because of her abandonment issues.
Ex: Adele split from her ex-husband Simon in 2016 (pictured together in 2013)
It was revealed in 2019 that Evans – who announced his bowel cancer diagnosis six years earlier – was earning just £50 a day as a Yodel delivery driver after giving up his career as a plumber.
Evans admitted he was a ‘rotten father’ to his daughter when she was growing up, blaming his alcoholism – triggered by the collapse of his relationship with Adele’s mother Penny Adkins – for the way he treated her.
He walked out when his daughter was three, leaving her mother to raise her single-handedly.
He said: ‘I was putting away two liters of vodka and seven or eight pints of Stella every day.
‘I drank like that for three years. God only knows how I survived it.’
He added that he was ‘deeply ashamed’ of what he had ‘become’, adding: ‘The kindest thing I could do for Adele was to make sure she never saw me in that state.’
Meanwhile, Adele often refers to her mother Penny Adkins as her ‘best friend’ for helping her become the world’s best-selling music artist.
Penny met Adele’s father Mark in 1989 and soon fell pregnant with the future star.
Adele previously said: ‘She fell pregnant with me when she would have been applying for uni, but chose to have me instead. She never, ever reminds me of that. I will try to remember it.’
The former couple separated when Adele was just nine-months-old but continued to co-parent her until 1999, until Mark turned to addiction.
Adele credits her mother to helping her get to where she is now and previously bought her a £600,000 house in Notting Hill as a thank you.
Open: After Oprah touched on Adele’s ‘interesting relationship’ with alcohol, the singer said her father’s death had made an impact in her lifestyle
CBS announced that the Adele special drew in huge ratings for the channel, revealing it drew the biggest Sunday night audience for any entertainment show.
The Hollywood Reporter said that the only item which has received higher viewing figures was NFL in primetime.
The show – which featured Adele performing some of her new tracks and a sitdown chat with Oprah – received on average 9.92million viewers.
Adele’s special even managed to draw in more slightly more viewers than this year’s Oscars – which received 9.85 million.
The publication confirmed that it reached the highest viewer told for an entertainment programme since a showing of NCIS in April.
It is the third-best primetime number of the season behind two post-NFL editions of 60 Minutes.
The figures don’t include out of home viewing, so they are set to continue to rise.
Wow! CBS announced that the Adele special drew in huge ratings for the channel, revealing it drew the biggest Sunday night audience for any entertainment show
