- Adele told The Face that she had "really quite bad postpartum depression" after her son's birth.
- She said she sometimes didn't even have time to brush her teeth, let alone write songs for a record.
- She shared how things are changing now that her son is 9 years old.
At 33, Adele is at the top of her career and over the lows of motherhood — but she's been open about how low they were and how much of themselves parents have to give up.
The singer was recently interviewed by Candice Carty-Williams of The Face for the magazine's winter 2021 cover story. The conversation focused on Adele's work and touched on her experience as a mother.
In her 2017 Grammys acceptance speech for album of the year, Adele described how hard and isolating new motherhood could be, and she was honest and vulnerable about her struggles as a mother. She said that finding out she was pregnant five years earlier had been "the biggest blessing" of her life.
She continued: "In my pregnancy and through becoming a mother, I lost a lot of myself, and then I've struggled. And I still do struggle being a mom — it's really hard. But tonight, winning this kind of feels full circle and like a bit of me has come back to myself."
Four years later — and 10 years after learning she was pregnant with her son, Angelo, now 9 — Adele revisited that part of her life in her conversation with Carty-Williams.
Her struggles as a new mom
Adele recalled "having no time to even brush my teeth, let alone write a record or hang out with my friends" as a new mom.
"My friends, my hobbies, the things I like doing without a baby, are things that make me who I am," she said. "And I didn't really have access to that for a while."
Adele said she had "really quite bad postpartum depression" during the early phase of motherhood, while making sacrifices and "giving, giving, giving, to a baby or a toddler" who can't talk back.
"Your brain goes a bit mushy. You're not stimulated very much," she said.
She added that even when a child exits that demanding baby phase, being a parent changes your life forever.
Going from mourning to yearning
"There are definitely a few elements of myself that I don't think I'll ever get back," she said, adding that in all facets of her life, her son comes first.
"It still makes me mourn myself a bit every now and then," she said. "Maybe I'm not mourning anymore, maybe I'm more yearning. A little bit like: ooh, what would I do and where would I go?"
Adele said that as she's grown as an artist, her son has grown as a person, becoming a little comedian. She added that this phase of parenting was actually very fun.
"As they get older, you can take them everywhere with you and they can tell you if they're not enjoying something, what they want, if they're hungry or if they have a tummy ache, whatever," she said. "It's way easier to navigate once you can really communicate with them. He's about to turn nine and he's getting to the point now where he's got opinions."