ADELE

The real Adele

Her voice is beautiful again after throat surgery but Adele admits that parts of her personality won’t be mended so quickly.

The six-time Grammy winner – whose two albums have detailed her love-life agony – says it was partly her fault that some of her relationships broke down.

She laughs: “Oh my God, I love a bit of drama. That’s a bad thing. I can flip really quickly.

“I am not bipolar, but I can go from, ‘Oh, my God, I love you’ to ‘Get the f*** out of my house!’ really quickly.

“And I never sit and talk about it either. I give them the silent treatment. They’re like, ‘Tell me what I’ve done wrong so that I can say sorry’.

“What else? It used to be that I loved a drink a bit too much. But I don’t drink no more.”

                 

Her voice is beautiful again after throat surgery but Adele admits that parts of her personality won’t be mended so quickly.

The six-time Grammy winner – whose two albums have detailed her love-life agony – says it was partly her fault that some of her relationships broke down.

She laughs: “Oh my God, I love a bit of drama. That’s a bad thing. I can flip really quickly.

“I am not bipolar, but I can go from, ‘Oh, my God, I love you’ to ‘Get the f*** out of my house!’ really quickly.

“And I never sit and talk about it either. I give them the silent treatment. They’re like, ‘Tell me what I’ve done wrong so that I can say sorry’.

“What else? It used to be that I loved a drink a bit too much. But I don’t drink no more.”

London-born Adele quit alcohol last year – shortly after her 23rd birthday – and her life has since undergone the most remarkable transformation.

Her second album, 21, has sold more than 17 million copies in the US and the UK. 

And at the weekend she wept on stage as she collected an incredible six Grammy awards, equalling Beyonce’s record for the most won by a female in one night.

Picking up the best album award, she told the star-studded audience in Los Angeles: “I first of all wanna say, ‘Mum – girl done good’.

“This record is inspired by something that is really normal and we have all been through it – a rubbish relationship.

“It has gone on to do things that I can’t tell you how I feel. It has been the most life-changing year.”

   

                      

She has come a long way from the cramped flat in Tottenham where she was brought up by her single mum Penny, 43, after her dad Mark walked out when she was three.

And her spectacular global success has also coincided with a welcome upturn in her own love life.

She took 37-year-old businessman Simon Konecki with her to the Grammys – and she admits she is deeply in love with him.

The fact that he has been married before and has a five-year-old daughter doesn’t bother her.

On her website she told fans that he was divorced, adding: “Everyone in our lives, separately and together, wish us nothing but the best.”

And she insists she is not about to risk her new-found happiness by neglecting her relationship – and has no plans to tour again before 2016.

“He’s wonderful,” Adele gushes when asked about Simon. “And he’s proud of me, but he don’t care about what I do or what other people think. He looks after me.

“I am f***ing off for four or five years. If I am constantly working, my relationships fail. So at least now I can have enough time to write a happy record. And be in love and be happy.

“And then I don’t know what I’ll do. Get married. Have some kids. Plant a nice vegetable patch

“I want to set up my home. I need to lay some concrete. I don’t think I would have gotten through the recovery for my surgery if it hadn’t been for Simon.”

                   

Adele’s throat problems had threatened to bring her glittering career to a premature end.

In an interview with next month’s US Vogue magazine, the singer reveals the pain began at the start of a promotional tour for 21 around the beginning of last year.

She was suffering from painful sore throats on and off for months before and said it felt like someone had “pulled a curtain” over her throat during a Paris radio show.

The problem grew worse – and when her voice went again in May, there was actual bleeding.

“That was a haemorrhage,” she recalls. “It was a burst blood vessel on my vocal cord.”

But even then she carried on performing She explains: “That healed, I did a tour, and then it happened again at my best friend’s wedding on October 1.

“I knew my voice was in trouble, and, obviously, I cried a lot. But crying is really bad for your vocal cords, too.”

The experience seems to have made her stronger and she talks about it philosophically – and without a trace of bitterness.

“I think I just needed to be silenced,” she says. “And when you are silent, everyone else around you is silent. So the noise in my life just stopped.

“It was like I was floating in the sea for three weeks. It was brilliant. It was my body telling me to fix me. I had so much time to kind of go over things and get over things, which is amazing.

“I think if I hadn’t had my voice trouble, I’d never have broached those subjects with myself. Now I just feel really at peace.”

After getting advice from music managers in the business, Adele flew to Boston to see Steven Zeitels, considered by many to be the world’s leading throat surgeon.

He discovered a polyp on one of Adele’s vocal cords, which meant she would require surgery.

The star went under the knife on November 3 and then rested for a full three months – before re-emerging with a stunning rendition of Rolling in the Deep at last weekend’s Grammys.

                 

There was a fear over how her voice would hold up, but she came through with flying colours.

She does admit surgery has changed her voice, saying it is “not as husky” as it was beforehand and higher than it used to be

“It was a bit traumatic having the surgery but being silent in such a noisy world was a bit of a blessing in disguise,” she says. “And thank God my voice healed. I stuck to all of the rules they gave me.”

                 

Looking ahead, she wants to leave London completely and live in the countryside near Brighton with her boyfriend, taking time out from her whirlwind success.

Ruling out any plans to bring out her own perfume or try her hand at acting, she laughs: “I am the worst actress of all time. I’m like a f*****g cardboard box!”

Her album 21 followed her debut offering 19 – named after the ages when she wrote them – but fans hoping for 23 will be disappointed.

She says it will take at least another three years to make a record but she has no plans to quit the music business altogether.

             

She says: “I’m in it for the long run, I don’t want to be disposable. You’re only as good as your next record.

“I’m not scared of losing this. I won’t come out with new music until it’s better than 21.  I’m not expecting to sell as many records, but I don’t want to release any s***.”