Adele is one of the most famous names in music.
Her fame was unmatched then her song Skyfall became a hit and eventually won the Grammy Award.
However, she has spoken openly about her struggles with fame and with postpartum depression, a condition that affects hundreds of thousands of women every year, after giving birth.
“I was obsessed with my child. I felt very inadequate; I felt like I had made the worst decision of my life,” the star said of the birth of her son Angelo.
Adele continued, “You can’t talk about the downside of fame because people have hope and hold on to the hope of what it would be like to be famous, to be adored, to be able to create and do fun things.”
The singer and Angelo’s father, Simon Konecki, also co-parent his daughter from a previous marriage.
“My understanding of postpartum – or postnatal, as we call it in England – is that you don’t want to be with your child,” says the Rolling into the depths hitmaker told Vanity fair. “You’re afraid you’re going to hurt your child; you’re afraid you haven’t done it right.”
“I had really bad postpartum depression after I had my son, and it scared me,” she said. “I didn’t talk to anyone about it. I was very reluctant.”
Although Konecki suggested confiding in other women, which Adele initially refused. Still, she found herself “drawn to pregnant women and other women with children because I noticed they are a little more patient.”
She did not take antidepressants for her condition, but found help by talking to other women about her feelings. “Four of my friends felt the same way I did, and everyone was too ashamed to talk about it.”
“Finally I just said, I’m going to give myself one afternoon a week just to do whatever I want without my baby,” Adele said.
She recalled, “They thought everyone would think they were a bad mother, and that’s not the case. It makes you a better mother if you give yourself a better time.”
Adele also acknowledges that she is “very prone to depression” and can slip in and out of low moods quite easily.
“The music I’ve always been drawn to is sad. I’ve always been quite melancholic. Obviously not as much in my real life as the songs, but I have a very dark side,” she told the outlet, adding: “It started when my grandpa died, when I was about 10, and while I’ve never had suicidal thoughts, I’ve been in therapy a lot.”
“One day I said to a friend, ‘I hate this,’ and she burst into tears and said, ‘I hate this too.’ And it was done. It went away,” Adele said, adding that she hasn’t felt this bad since she “came out of postpartum depression.”
