Adele Oprah Winfrey interview 2021: can I watch One Night Only on UK TV - and what did the singer say?

Ahead of the release of her new album 30, Adele spoke to talk show host Oprah Winfrey on US network CBS
Adele sat down for an intimate conversation with Oprah Winfrey (Picture: CBS)Adele sat down for an intimate conversation with Oprah Winfrey (Picture: CBS)
Adele sat down for an intimate conversation with Oprah Winfrey (Picture: CBS)

Singing sensation Adele has given her most intimate interview to date, during a ‘one night only’ sit down conversation with US media mogul, Oprah Winfrey.

The Make You Feel My Love singer, 33, opened up about her divorce, her son, weight loss and her absent father, as well as singing a number of the tracks from her new album, ‘30’.

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Oprah hosted the interview in the same California rose garden where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spoke openly with her, but the singer also gave performances in a star studded Hollywood concert.

So, what did Adele say during her Oprah interview - and can you watch it in the UK? This is what you need to know.

What did Adele say about her divorce?

During the two-hour-long interview, Adele spoke about many issues which have made headlines in recent years.

One which Adele has attempted to keep out the limelight was her short-lived marriage to Simon Konecki.

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She said she was “embarrassed” by the end of her marriage, adding she felt she had “disrespected” the meaning of marriage as she filed for divorce within months of tieing the knot with Konechi.

Despite being together for eight years, Adele revealed she realised she wasn’t happy while doing a quiz in a gossip magazine.

One of the questions asked, "what’s something that no-one would ever know about you?", and she blurted out to her friends: "I’m really not happy. I’m not living, I’m just plodding along."

"They all gasped," she revealed. "From there, I was like ‘What am I doing? What am I doing it for?’"

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The pair wed and split in 2018, which the now 33-year-old said was not something she ever imagined happening.

"I’ve been obsessed with a nuclear family my whole life because I never came from one," she told Oprah, before discussing how she came from a single-parent home after her father left when she was just two-years-old.

"From a very young age [I] promised myself that, when I had kids, we’d stay together. And I tried for a really, really long time."

Despite being unhappy in their marriage, Adele told how her ex-husband saved her life and she still loves him.

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The singer told Oprah of when she met Konechi: "At that time in my life, I was so young and I think I would have got in all of it. I could easily gone down some dodgy paths and self-destructed from being so overwhelmed by all of it.

"And he came in and was the most stable person I’d ever had in my life up until that point. Even now I trust them with my life."

The pair still live opposite each other in California, where they raise their son Angelo together.

What did she say about her late father?

Adele went on to reveal how her absent father has played a role in the lyrics of her new album, as well as discussing how they reunited shortly before he passed away in April.

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The ‘Hold On’ singer described her absent father as the "biggest wound" she’d suffered as a child, adding there was "absolute lack of presence and effort" from her father, Marc Evans.

"I had absolutely zero expectations of anybody, because I learned not to have them through my dad," she said. "He was the reason I haven’t fully accessed what it is to be in a loving, loving relationship with somebody."

Evans became very ill in the months before his death and Adele reunited with him, sharing her new album as a means of reconnecting.

During their conversations, Evans told Adele he struggled to listen to her music and has only listened to her first song, Hometown Glory.

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"He never ever played any of my other music," she said. "He was like, ‘It’s too painful.’"

However, that changed when Adele decided to play him one of her new songs, To Be Loved, which shared how his absence had affected her ability to trust other people.

"It was amazing for me and him," she said. "I think he could listen to me sing it, but not saying it - we are very similar like that."

In the end, she managed to play him all of her new album over Zoom, shortly before he died in April.

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"His favourites were all of my favourites, which was amazing," Adele told Winfrey, "and he was proud of me for doing it.

"So it was it was very, very healing [and] when he died, it was literally like the wound closed up."

What did she say about her 100lbs weight loss?

Adele shocked fans at the beginning of the year when she showed off her 100lbs (45kg) weight loss, which she told Oprah was a result of using exercise as a stress reliever.

She said that while going through her divorce, she suffered "terrifying anxiety attacks", which were subdued by working out.

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"I had the most terrifying anxiety attacks after I left my marriage," she explained. "They paralysed me completely, and made me so confused because I wouldn’t be able to have any control over my body."

Adele had a fuller figure when she first launched her career (Picture: Getty Images)Adele had a fuller figure when she first launched her career (Picture: Getty Images)
Adele had a fuller figure when she first launched her career (Picture: Getty Images)

"[The workouts] really contributed towards me getting my mind right," she said, adding that she goes to the gym most days.

When Oprah commented that she had received similar backlash when she lost weight, Adele admitted she had too.

"I’m not shocked or even fazed by it because my body has been objectified my entire career. I’m either too big or too small; I’m either hot or I’m not,” she said.

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"But it’s not my job to validate how people feel about their bodies. I feel bad that it’s made anyone feel horrible about themselves - but that’s not my job. I’m trying to sort my own life out. I can’t add another worry.

What is Adele’s song ‘Hold On’ about?

While Adele performed a number of her new album tracks during the CBS show, the one which Oprah singled out as a ‘national anthem’ was Adele’s track about the breakdown of her marriage.

Titled ‘Hold On’, the lyrics read: "I’m such a mess / The harder that I try, I regress / I am my own worst enemy / Right now I truly hate being me."

"It was just exhausting trying to keep going with it. It’s a process - the process of a divorce, the process of being a single parent, the process of not seeing your child every single day. [It] wasn’t really a plan that I had when I became a mum,” the mother-of-one told.

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Adele revealed that the words are a reflection of her internal dialogue during her divorce.

Her friends would tell her to "hold on", as she struggled.

Winfrey told CBS news ahead of the interview airing, that she thought the song would become a "national anthem throughout the world for anybody struggling with anything".

During her interview with Oprah, Adele also said she struggled to understand how she connects so deeply with her audience.

"I don’t think, as a person, I have what my singing has. I’m pulling from somewhere else [and] I don’t know how to access it,” she remarked.

Adele and Oprah spoke about her ability to reach out to millions of people across the world through her lyrics (Picture: CBS)Adele and Oprah spoke about her ability to reach out to millions of people across the world through her lyrics (Picture: CBS)
Adele and Oprah spoke about her ability to reach out to millions of people across the world through her lyrics (Picture: CBS)
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"It’s wild, because I don’t think I’m that deep in real life.”

However, she did say she continues to write about her personal experience in her music, as it connects her to others.

"Music helps me in many situations, and I would like to do the same for people... to be reminded that they’re not alone.

"There were moments when I was writing the record, or I would listen back to something and be like, ‘That might be a bit too private’. But nothing is as scary as what I’ve been through over the last two [or] three years behind closed doors. So I’m not frightened."

Which celebrities were at her ‘One Night Only’ concert?

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As well as the open conversation with Oprah, filmed in the Montecito rose garden, the CBS show interjected the interview with clips from her private Hollywood concert.

The singer debuted some of her recent hits at the concert,  which took place at the scenic Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, in the shadow of the Hollywood sign.

Among the all star crowd was ‘Rumours’ singer Lizzo, fellow Brit James Corden, Kardashian momager Kris Jenner and actress Melissa McCarthy.

The concert was the first time Adele’s nine-year-old son, Angelo, had seen her perform live.

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She told the crowd: "It’s the absolute honour of my life, baby, to have you here tonight.”

Adele also agreed to share the limelight during the show, when she allowed a local man to propose to his girlfriend during the set.

Quentin proposed to Ashley as Adele serenaded them with a stunning rendition of Make You Feel My Love, as the stunned bride-to-be said "yes" and burst into tears.

Quentin proposed to his girlfriend, Ashley, who’d been led into the concert blindfolded to conceal the surprise (Picture: CBS)Quentin proposed to his girlfriend, Ashley, who’d been led into the concert blindfolded to conceal the surprise (Picture: CBS)
Quentin proposed to his girlfriend, Ashley, who’d been led into the concert blindfolded to conceal the surprise (Picture: CBS)

He had led Ashley into the concert blindfolded, before she found herself sharing the stage with the musician and Quentin.

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"Thank God she said yes, because I didn’t know who I was going to sing this song to next," Adele laughed.

Quentin proposed to his girlfriend, Ashley, who’d been led into the concert blindfolded to conceal the surprise

Where can I watch the Adele Oprah interview in the UK?

Adele’s two-hour-long interview with Oprah is not planned for broadcast in the UK, unlike Harry and Meghan’s CBS interview which was bought by ITV.

Currently, ITV have commissioned ‘An Audience With Adele’, hosted by Alan Carr, due for broadcast on Sunday, 21 November.

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