Adele on Her Divorce: "I Was Just Going Through the Motions, and I Wasn’t Happy"

The go-to creator of soul-soothing melodies designed to get you through a crippling case of heartbreak, Adele has continued to amaze fans with chart-toppers like "Rolling in the Deep," "Set Fire to the Rain," and "Love in the Dark" since the early 2000s.

Longing, romantic resentment, and the painful process of letting go are just some of the motifs Adele tends to revisit. Her forthcoming album, "30", draws on her split from Simon Konecki. So, why did they get divorced?

Adele and Simon, a businessman and philanthropist who founded companies like Life Water and drop4drop, made great efforts to maintain their privacy throughout the relationship. They started dating in 2011. They made it official in 2012, the same year Adele announced that she was pregnant with her first and only son, Angelo.

Adele and Simon eventually announced their divorce in 2019. So, why did they break up?

Adele first referred to Simon as her husband at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards held in Feb. 2017. As she told Vogue in 2021, they might have misled the media slightly. They were married for only two years. Ultimately, Adele filed for divorce in 2019, and it was finalized in 2021.

As she told Vogue, she wanted a divorce because she wasn't in love with Simon anymore — simple as that.

"I was just going through the motions, and I wasn’t happy," Adele said. "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. It's really important to me. I've been on my journey to find my true happiness ever since."

Adele doesn't consider Simon as one of her exes — he is Angelo's dad. Per Vogue, he lives across the street, in a house Adele bought for him. Movie nights take place on a regular basis.

As Adele explained, "30" was created after she and Simon ended their relationship, but the album explores a different kind of divorce too. After encountering some obstacles, Adele realized that she wasn't making her life easy enough.

"It was more me divorcing myself," she said. "Just being like, 'B---h, f--kin’ hot mess, get your f--kin' s--t together!'"

Take the first single from the album, "Easy on Me," which references Adele's childhood and her experiences as a married woman and mother.

"I changed who I was to put you both first, but now I give up," she sings at one point.

The introspective tone of the lyrics and the use of metaphors like washing one's hands in a gold-less river seems to imply that Adele has moved on both from her old ways and her life as a married woman. (At least, for now.)

"Easy on Me" is out now. "30" will become available on Nov. 19, 2021.