Adele has opened up about her experiences of being "smothered with love" when she visited her Welsh grandparents while growing up. Appearing recently on Desert Island Discs, the multi-million-selling singer opened up to host Lauren Laverne about her childhood relationship with her dad, Mark and the times she spent in Penarth with his parents and how her grandfather's death, when she was 10, 'traumatised' her.
Choosing tracks like Dreams by Gabrielle and He Needs Me by Nina Simone on the BBC Radio 4 show, Adele lovingly recalled memories of trips to Penarth and how proud her 'grampy' would have been of her career.
"He was a plumber, my grampy and he used to go to work all day and he'd come back and he'd be smelling of like, being a plumber and I loved it," said the singer. "We'd have a cuddle, watch the six o'clock news - a bit dry - or I was baking with my nana and just... yeah, I was spoiled rotten and smothered with love. It just felt like a really great routine. You know, which I've always lacked in most of my life."
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Lauren Laverne asked Adele about her memorable Glastonbury set, back in 2016, which she dedicated to her grandfather.
"I don't remember much of it because it was such an overwhelming experience," she said. "But I imagined him there. He would have been proud as punch, he would have hated Glastonbury, though he'd have loved the wellies, but all that mud, oh, he'd be saying 'what the bloody hell's going on?' but I just think he would have been so proud of me."
Her Welsh grandparents were the parents of Adele's dad, Mark Evans, who died last year and the pair had a difficult relationship throughout her life, and the 34-year-old admitted on the show that he was "a letdown" to her growing up, not turning up to see her, or snatching half hours here and there.
"He was a really big alcoholic and had loads of demons," she said. "But I didn't really understand that when I was younger and I didn't need that conversation with him when I was like, seven, eight, nine, 10 or whatever. And then I decided to stop seeing him when I was 12, because I'd gone to Penarth to surprise him for Father's Day. My nana said come down and he didn't come. So I stopped seeing him. "I saw him very briefly when I was about 15, when my great grandma died, so his nana, and he did apologise then, but I was 15 I didn't want to hear it. And I mean, I was just a teenager."
It was a few years back when Adele discovered that Mark was ill and then it was a no-brainer to reconnect with him. She revealed: "When I found out that he was ill a few years ago, I got the call and I drove straight there. It was hard but it was definitely one of the biggest moments of my life in a good way, when I went to go and see him. I made the peace with him when I found out he was sick. And we really got on, which was amazing, but also sad because he was really bloody funny.
“He is really funny and I don’t remember that when I was little. But it was really nice. We laughed and we gossiped and we cried. It was great for both of us.”
You can catchup with Desert Island Discs on BBC Sounds.
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