Oprah Adele Interview Transcript 18:36-24:17

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O: So here’s the thing. You write about it in song after song. You start
with, you know, ‘’Easy On Me’’. That's been released. Can you just
give us an idea of what happened with this all - consuming … it feels
like an all-consuming pain. And I am like, ‘’what the hell happened?!”

A: I’ve been obsessed with a nuclear family, my whole life because I

never came from one. You know, in all these movies and all these
books, like you know, you grow up reading them. Like, that’s what it
should be.

O: Right.

A: Like and you know. I just… from a very young age, just you know,
promised myself that when I had kids, that we’d stay together. We
would be that united family. And …

O: Aahh…

A: And I tried for a really, really long time. And then, um, I was just so
disappointed for my son, I was so disappointed for myself. And I was
just… I thought I was going to be the one that, you know, stopped
doing those bloody patterns all the time.

O: So, do you call this… Is this the Divorce album?

A: I think I am divorcing myself on it.

O: Yeah.

A: Yeah.
O: How does one do that?

A: So, Lonely, you know. I spent a lot of time on my own. Really

sitting on my feelings and not keeping myself busy. I used to always,
if a feeling came up, I would just distract myself. I’d call my friend up,
‘’You want to go out? What do you want to do? Put a movie on,
whatever, I would just sit with it.

O: I would just eat it, myself.

A: Absolutely! I would just … whenever I would notice how I was

feeling, I would sit down and sit in it. I stopped drinking. That’s one
great way of um,, Of really sorta getting to know yourself is being…
you know, just drinking water, being sober as anything.

O: But you’ve had a fascinating relationship with alcohol, I read where

you said that alcohol really fascinated you.

A: Yea, very much, cuz it took my dad from me.

O: And, then you stopped?

A: Well, when I was going through everything a couple years ago,

when I was going through my divorce, yes.
Um, not at the beginning. At first, whoo! I probably kept the alcohol
industry alive. But you know, once I realized I had a lot of work to do
on myself, yeah. I stopped drinking?? And I started working out lots
and stuff like that. Thats’ to sort of keep me centered.

O: Was there a moment when you knew or was it a series of things

that you said, can’t do this anymore!

A: With my journey or in…?

O: With the divorce from Simon. Like, because I… I, you know, over
the years, you meet so many people who stayed, were miserable, and
years before they actually made the move, had started thinking about
it. So, I’m wondering, was there a single moment or was….?

A: I do remember one of my friends, we were all answering these

questions in this… very boujee magazine and it was something like,
what’s something that no one would ever know about you? And, and I
just said it in front of 3 of my friends, I was like, I'm really not happy.
I’m not living. I’m just plodding along. And I remember there was a
lyric that I wrote that I put in a song on ‘’25’’ that I want to live and not
just survive.
And I definitely felt like that. When I admitted to my own
friends who thought I was really happy that actually I was really
unhappy and they were all aghast, you know… I felt like it was sort of
from there that I was like, what am I doing? What am I doing it for?
You know. But I think it was just us getting married, us having
our wedding and I take marriage very seriously.

O: Cuz you have all that stuff from the past.

A: It seems like I don’t. You know now, like I almost disrespected it by

getting married and then you know divorce so quickly, and stuff like
that. But I think…

O: Are you embarrassed cuz it was so quickly?

A: I’m just embarrassed that I didn’t make my marriage work.

O: Ok.

A: You know.
O: So, now that you have perspective, and you’ve opened up your
soul and shared it with the world here on “30’’, why do you think is
the real reason Simon came into your life?

A: I think Simon probably saved my life, to be honest with you. He

came at such a moment, whereas the stability that him and Angelo
have given me. No one else would ever have been able to give me
especially like at the time in my life, I was so young. And I just, I think
I would’ve got a bit lost. With it. Like, you know. And I think I probably
could’ve easily gone down some dodgy paths like, you know. And
sort of self destructive like being so overwhelmed by all of it.
And he, he came in and was stable. The most stable person I’ve ever
had in my life up until that point. Even now, I trust him with my life.

O: Really?

A: Oh my gosh, like beyond. Yeah, I felt like him and Angelo, they
were angels sent to me. That's how I feel.

O: So, came into your life at the right season and for the right
reasons.

A: Yes, absolutely.

O: And in that moment, when Algelo said to you, ‘’What don’t you love
Daddy anymore?’’

A: Yeah, that was really hard trying to explain to a six year old, at the
time obviously, um. That I do love him, I’m just not in love with him.
Makes absolutely no sense to a six year old. Like, you know … so.
These were so many answers I just couldn’t give him. Cuz there aren’t
any, really. Like, you know, that he would understand, but he sees I
still love his dad like …

O: Cuz you live across the street from him.

A: We live across the street from each other, we're away together
sometimes, like you know, and like me and Simon also chat away
without Angelo like, Angelo could you know be at school.

O: So you’re still friends…?

A: Ah, yes 100% percent.

O: 100% percent.

A: Yeah, I respect him more than anyone.

O: How does he feel about this album and the story of the two of you
coming through your music?

A: I mean we don't sit around and talk about it. Like, how you feeling
like? “Easy On Me” has 40 million streams. How ya feeling? Love,
Hah!we don’t talk about it. I mean, he knows what kind of artist I am.
That I have to dig deep and tell my story.