Adele emotionally opens up about reconciling with dad just days before his death this year

15 November 2021, 13:03

Oprah Winfrey drives to meet Adele ahead of CBS filming

Adele spoke about the heartbreak of how her father abandoned her at age three, and how she reconciled with him shortly before his death, during an interview with Oprah Winfrey as part of her two-hour CBS special 'Adele One Night Only.'

Adele opened up to Oprah about how she finally got some closure after meeting with her estranged father, Mark Evans, in Wales, before he died in May 2021 from bowel cancer.

"My dad's absolute lack of presence and effort... But I finally understood that it was the alcohol... It took my dad from me," she said while tearing up.

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Adele explained to Oprah that her father's absence when she was a child had influenced how she dealt with relationships as a grown-up, and she ended up hurting her partners as a defence mechanism to avoid being hurt herself.

"I hurt the first, not in a malicious way, but protect herself," she said. 

The singer also spoke about her divorce and how she felt "embarrassed" that her relationship with ex-husband Simon Konecki had failed, just like 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. "Nothing as scary as what I've been through in the past two years behind closed doors."

When Oprah mentioned Adele's "interesting relationship" with alcohol, the singer said her father's death had made an impact in her lifestyle to this day.

"It [Alcohol] took my dad from me," Adele said. "Once I realised I had to do a lot to work on myself, I stopped drinking and started working out a lot."

Adele's estranged father, Mark Evans, died in May at the age of 57 after a long battle with bowel cancer. 

The singer said she met up with her father in Wales shortly before his death, and got closure after her difficult childhood without him.

Promo sees Adele join Oprah Winfrey for CBS special

“I felt that huge gaping hole filled,” Adele said of the conversation she had with her father. “We forgave each other. We found our peace together, and then I played the album to him on Zoom.”

Evans and his daughter fell out in 2011 when Evans - who walked out on the singer's family when she was a child - claimed in an interview that she struggled to find love due to her abandonment issues.

Evans also admitted that he was a "rotten father" to his daughter when she was growing up, blaming his alcoholism - which he said was triggered by the collapse of his relationship with Adele's mother, Penny Adkins.

He walked out of the home when his daughter was three, leaving her mother to raise her as a single parent.

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He said at the time: "I was putting away two litres 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."

Adele also performed several tracks from her long-awaited new album 30 in the special, including new songs 'I Drink Wine' and 'Love is a Game'.

While Adele’s U.S. special aired over the weekend, the UK can expect their own live special this weekend. An Audience With Adele will air on ITV on November 21.