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Adele voicenotes reveal emotional discussions of divorce with her son, Angelo

British artist recorded the voicenotes at the suggestion of her therapist

Roisin O'Connor
Friday 19 November 2021 03:29 EST
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Adele has released her new album, 30, and fans are already unpacking the lyrics and meanings behind each track.

The British artist, 33, has previously explained that the record was written as an attempt to explain her divorce to her nine-year-old son, Angelo.

Following her separation from ex-husband Simon Konecki, Angelo’s father, Adele began recording conversations with Angelo at the suggestion of her therapist.

“Mummy’s been having a lot of big feelings recently,” she tells Angelo, on “My Little Love”. “And I feel like I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

“At all?” Angelo is heard asking in response.

“I love your daddy because he gave you to me,” she later tells him. “You’re half me and you’re half daddy’s.”

Interspersed are Adele’s lyrics, as she sings: “I want you to have everything I never had/ I’m so sorry what I’ve done makes you feel sad.”

“Mama’s got a lot to learn,” she later admits.

In a particularly raw moment of the song, Adele appears to speak to her therapist or to herself, saying she’s having “a very bad day”.

“I feel very paranoid, very stressed,” she says, crying. “I have a hangover, which never helps but... I feel like today was the first day since I ... felt lonely. And I never feel lonely, I love being on my own. I always prefer being on my own than being with people.

“And I feel like maybe I’ve been overcompensating and being out and stuff like that to keep my mind off it,” she continues. “And I feel like today I’m at home, and I wanna be at home, I just wanna watch TV and curl up in a ball and be in my sweats... I just feel really lonely. I feel a bit frightened that I might feel like this a lot.”

Adele performing during the ‘One Night Only’ concert at the Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles
Adele performing during the ‘One Night Only’ concert at the Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles (CBS)

In an interview with Vogue, the singer’s first in five years, she said: “My son has had a lot of questions. Really good questions, really innocent questions, that I just don’t have an answer for.”

The “Hello” singer added that the record is to help him understand her emotions when he’s older.

“I just felt like I wanted to explain to him, through this record, when he’s in his twenties or thirties, who I am and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness,” she said.

“It made him really unhappy sometimes. And that’s a real wound for me that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to heal.”

Read The Independent’s review of 30 here.

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