Adele's Life Lessons

WITH HER DEEPLY CONFESSIONAL NEW ALBUM OUT, THE SINGER HAS BEEN OPENING UP ABOUT THE PAIN OF DIVORCE — AND THE JOY OF FINDING NEW LOVE.

IT was her turn to cry. Adele, master of the sob-inducing lyric, burst into tears as her eighth-grade English teacher surprised her on stage at London’s Palladium during her ITV special, An Audience with Adele, Nov. 21. “You really did change my life,” the 33-year-old told a visibly moved Miss McDonald, known at London’s Chestnut Grove Academy as much for her dance moves and flashy jewelry as for her love of literature. “I still have all the books!”

And she’s still learning. With the release of her new album, 30, Adele has been opening up — both on the record, in multiple interviews and TV specials, and, well, on the actual record, in deeply personal lyrics — about finding herself after her painful divorce from husband of eight years Simon Konecki, the death of her estranged father and finding new love with sports agent Rich Paul. “I was really ignoring myself for a long time,” the mom to Angelo, 9, said on Nov. 14’s One Night Only, “which was wild to me when I realized it.”

HEAL THE PAST