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Adele · S7 E1
The Divorce
Her marriage to Simon Konecki ends in 2019 after three years. The album she writes about it will take two more years to finish.
A woman sits alone in a rented house in Los Angeles, surrounded by moving boxes, pressing record on her phone to leave a voice memo for her six-year-old son. She is trying to explain why daddy doesn't live here anymore.
Oprah discusses her exclusive conversation with Adele (CBS Mornings, November 2021). Ahead of the two-hour "Adele One Night Only" CBS special, Oprah shares clips from her wide-ranging interview about the divorce, motherhood, and why this album is different from everything that came before. This is the moment the world learns what album 30 is really about.
The Divorce
Adele and Simon Konecki announce their separation in April 2019 after years together. The divorce is finalized in March 2021. Between those two dates, Adele writes the most personal album of her career: not about a romantic breakup this time, but about the guilt of being the one who chose to leave.
The Making of 30
Adele begins writing in 2018, but the sessions take on a different shape after the separation. She works with Greg Kurstin, Max Martin, Shellback, Inflo, and Ludwig Goransson across studios in Los Angeles and London. The album becomes a real-time document of a divorce: the guilt, the anger, the loneliness, and the conversations with a child who deserves an explanation.
“I was just going through the motions and I wasn't happy. 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.”
— Adele
TAP TO REVEAL: What hidden audio on "My Little Love" almost didn't make the album?
Who directed both the "Hello" and "Easy On Me" music videos?
My Little Love
From 30 (2021). The third track on the album and the one Adele has called the hardest to release. Between the sung verses, you hear real voice memos: Adele talking to Angelo about the separation, and Adele alone, recording herself through anxiety attacks. It's not a song designed to be enjoyed. It's a document of a mother trying to hold it together for her child.
My Little Love, Adele (2021)
Read the lyrics while you listen. The voice memos are transcribed between the verses. You can feel the difference between the sung performance and the raw, unscripted recordings. The line where she tells Angelo she loves him more than anything is where most people have to stop reading.
30, by the Numbers
Album 30 debuts at number one in over thirty countries. But Adele's next move isn't a world tour. It's a Las Vegas residency, and the night it's supposed to begin, she tears it all down.
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