Adele. David Fisher/Shutterstock
Oops! Adele revealed that fans have been mispronouncing her first name for years — but the difference is surprisingly subtle.
“Love that! She said my name perfectly!” the Grammy winner, 34, said during a recent fan Q&A session to celebrate the release of her “I Drink Wine” music video. Adele then explained that her preferred pronunciation works better with her North London accent: instead of “uh-dell,” the singer says her name with more emphasis on the second syllable. “Uh-DALE,” she said.
While the “Hello” songstress doesn’t seem to mind fans mispronouncing her first name, she does prefer they not use her last name at all. “I could have never used my surname,” she said in a December 2021 video with NikkieTutorials. “Adele Adkins does not have the same ring as Adele.” After joking that her last name sounded “drab,” the musician added that “Adele” is more than just a stage name to her.
“Adele still feels like my name,” she explained. “My mum still calls me it. My friends call me it.”
Adele may be swapping her last name for a less “drab” one in the future, however. In August, the England native gushed that she is “obsessed” with boyfriend Rich Paul, telling Elle that she’s open to tying the knot with him in the future. “I’ve never been in love like this,” she said at the time, though she denied that they had already taken the next step in their relationship. “I’m not engaged. I just love high-end jewelry, boy! [And] I’m not married. … I’m just in love! I’m happy as I’ll ever be. I might as well be married.”
Adele continued: “I definitely want more kids. I’m a homemaker and I’m a matriarch, and a stable life helps me with my music.”
The “Someone Like You” artist, who shares 5-year-old son Angelo with ex-husband Simon Konecki, has previously spoken about her desire to have more children in the future. “I definitely would like a couple more kids,” she said during an appearance on BBC Sounds’ “Desert Island Discs” podcast on in July. “It would be wonderful. If not, I’ve got Angelo.”
Adele and the Drop2Drop charity CEO — who went public with their relationship in 2012, six months before they welcomed their son — quietly tied the knot in 2018. They called it quits the following year and their divorce was finalized in March 2021. Despite the split, the former couple maintain a solid coparenting relationship and are still friendly with one another.
“It was never really tricky because we’re such good friends and over my dead body is my kid having a messy divorce in his life,” the Oscar winner explained in July. “There are no issues and there were no issues, so I guess it was easier to make sure that didn’t happen, but I was blessed with them, and him, [Simon] he’s just the best, you know. And I definitely approached it all with grace and that really paid off.”
Adele also dedicated her Album of the Year award at the BRITs in February to Konecki and Angelo. “I’d like to dedicate this award to my son. And to Simon, to his dad. This album was all of our journey, not just mine, and I’m very proud of myself for sticking to my guns and putting out an album that was about something so personal to me,” she said during her emotional acceptance speech in February. “‘Cause not many people do stuff like that anymore. And my son has been so gracious, so gracious and kind and patient with me over the last couple of years and it’s for him.”
