ADELE DIGS DEEP

As the superstar prepares to drop her long-awaited new album, she talks candidly about her 45kg weight loss, divorce and her hot romance

- LINDSAY DE FREITAS

IT’S been seven years since she last released new music and in that time she’s lost nearly 50kg, overcome the crippling anxiety that once ruled her life and gone through a divorce.

A lot has changed in the world too in those seven years. Back when her album 25 was released, TikTok didn’t yet exist, Twitter had just replaced the star symbol with a heart “like” and Instagram feeds were still in chronological order.

Now there are Instagram stories – and Adele surprised and delighted her fans when she took to the platform recently and played a clip of her upcoming single, Easy on Me, during her first live stream.

The song is the first single from her upcoming – and long-awaited – new album and its vintage Adele: from the heart and searingly emotional.

“I know there is hope in these waters but I can’t bring myself to swim when I am drowning in silence, baby let me,” she croons.

Adele is back and she’s all the rage. The 33-year-old made history this month by becoming the first person in history to grace the cover of both the UK and US editions of Vogue.

And one thing stands out: if her recent statements and her new single are anything to by, her new album is going to delve ever deeper into her personal wellbeing.

In response to a fan’s question about what her new album will be based on, she replied: “Divorce, babe, divorce.”

Yet Adele was reluctant to call the record a divorce album in her Vogue interview.

“It was more me divorcing myself,” she says. “Just being like, get your f***in’ s**t together.”