October 19: The couple made another court side appearance to watch the Los Angeles Lakers take on the Golden State Warriors in the NBA season-opening game. Adele wore another glam look, with a brown leather ensemble and Louis Vuitton coat. 

November 2021

November 6: Adele and Rich were spotted leaving An Audience with Adele, Adele’s first live U.K. performance in four years, together in London.

November 14: In an interview with Oprah for the CBS special Adele: One Night Only, Adele opened up a little bit more about her relationship with Rich, saying that it is the first relationship where she’s felt secure about herself. “It’s just timing,” she said. “But it’d be interesting to see what my reaction is like in general to anything that hurts me now that I feel so secure in myself, and I’m talking outside of romance as well.”

January 2022

January 7: A very giggly Adele and Rich attend another Lakers game. For this one, Adele went for a more casual look with a black blazer, joggers, and Air Force 1’s. 

February 2022

February 1: Amid rumors that the couple was on the outs, Adele subtly clapped back, confirming they’re still going strong. “Hiya, so I’m really happy to say that I am performing at the Brits next week!!” she wrote in the caption. “Oh, and Rich sends his love .”

February 8: Is Adele engaged????? Adele attended the Brit Awards on Tuesday, February 8 wearing a massive Lorraine Schwartz pear-shaped diamond on her left hand, sparking engagement rumors. 

Oh my God. Is Adele getting married to Rich Paul?

We’re not sure, but the “Hello” singer sparked rumors because of the massive diamond she wore on her left hand to BRIT Awards on Tuesday, February 8. For the British music awards show, Adele took home the three awards: artist of the year, Mastercard album of the year for 30, her critically-acclaimed divorce album, and song of the year for “Easy on Me,” the first single from the album.

For the event, Adele wore a custom velvet column gown. The dress is black with long sleeves and a deep V-neck. A sheer, sparkly polka-dotted detailing lies along the neckline and hangs off the back of the dress like a fancy sophisticated cape made exclusively for Adele. Adele wore her hair down in a sleek and smooth look and wore her signature cat-eye makeup and a rosy lip. For jewelry, Adele opted for silver drop earrings and, naturally, that pear-shaped massive Lorraine Schwartz diamond ring on her left hand. 

Check out the full look, including a close-up of the ring, below:

Megan Thee Stallion is waiting to hear from someone like Adele. Specifically, Adele.

The rapper is ready to collab with the singer after a fan-made mashup of their two styles sparked a major TikTok trend. In case you live under a rock (or just don’t have the “clock app,” which is fine), users mixed together Adele’s song “Water Under the Bridge” with Megan’s “Body,” and it went viral.

One of the biggest dance trends of the winter was doing the “Body” choreography (created by JaQuel Knight, who also did Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” video, a legend of our times) to the “Water Under the Bridge” chorus.

And yep, Megan’s seen it. “Oh, my God. Yes. I’ve seen it,” she told People. “If Adele wants me to come get on the track, be the dancer, I’m there, I’m here for it,” says Megan. “Somebody tell her to call me because I’m ready!”

Did you hear that, Adele? Call her! Hop on your little flip phone from the “Hello” video and call her! 

As for other potential partnerships, Megan’s both realistic and not. “Because I’ve manifested Beyoncé, I feel like I have reached my ultimate goal,” she said. “Well, I also would really, really, really love to collab with Rihanna. Like that is my next dream collab.” We say “realistic and not” because obviously anyone who can win awards with Beyoncé can do pretty much anything she sets her mind to…except make Rihanna release new music. Especially now that she’s pregnant.

But her most important partner? Megan Thee Stallion, of course. “If I just continue to be Megan and just pray, I’ll be blessed. And I’m just grateful that I’m still getting brought up in these conversations and people are still appreciating my music. So I just feel like I’m doing something right.” Yup.

If there’s anyone who loves sitting more than me, it’s Adele, who spent the majority of her new music video sitting in a chair. 

On Wednesday, January 12, Adele released her music video for the song “Oh My God” from her critically-acclaimed fourth studio album, 30. Remember listening to the album and crying for days on end? It feels like 20 years ago. (But in fact, the first music video from the album, “Easy On Me,” dropped in October.) 

“Oh My God” is an upbeat song (for Adele standards, at least). The video, directed in black and white, features Adele singing and sitting in a studio filled with chairs and apples. As the video progresses, dancers appear around her. Circular lights framed behind Adele make her look like a literal saint. By the end of the video, Adele’s chair is on fire, representing a new era and moving on from her marriage. This could also represent a distaste for sitting in uncomfortable chairs without any cushioning. But I digress: The most important part of the  “Oh My God” video is Adele’s three instantly iconic looks.

Billowing Polka Dot Sleeve Gown

Adele’s first look in the “Oh My God” video is a black column gown with dramatic, billowing transparent sleeves and a massive pussy bow. The sleeves and pussy bow have white polka dots on them. Adele styled this vibrant gown with her hair pulled into a bun with some pieces hanging by her ears. She wore pearl drop earrings that pair super well with the polka dots and black boots with a pointed toe. For makeup, she went for her signature cat-eye look with a strong cheek contour. 

Gown with Cape and Black Leather Gloves

For her second look in the video, Adele literally made me scream ”oh my God.”  This look is an A-line gown with a fitted bodice that’s giving pope-inspired Rihanna at the 2018 Met Gala.  For this look, Adele wore the shiny patterned gown with a white, cropped cape with embellishments and accessorized black leather gloves. She wore her usual glam but styled her hair down with a headband, and her ends curled outward at the bottom. 

Black Long-Sleeve Gown

Adele’s third and final look is classic Adele. The black tulle gown has a fitted bodice with see-through long sleeves, a cowl neck, and a large, billowing skirt that adds drama to every shot. She wore her standard glam for this one, but amped it up with dark lipstick. She accessorized with a shiny, delicate silver necklace and matching earrings, and wore her hair down and in a trendy wet hair look. 

Content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

You can watch the full “Oh My God” video, above. 

In all of these cases, the public discourse around these women’s bodies has effectively obscured their exciting, unprecedented professional and personal achievements. But this handful of examples doesn’t even scratch the surface of the egregious minimization of women’s successes in favor of dissecting their physical appearance. It’s hard not to wonder how this behavior will continue to trivialize monumental wins for other women. 

As Taylor Swift continues to dominate the music industry by reclaiming control of her masters, will headlines once again start picking apart her body? In the 2020 documentary Miss Americana, Swift said there were times she’d see “a picture of me where I feel like I looked like my tummy was too big, or…someone said that I looked pregnant…and that’ll just trigger me to just starve a little bit—just stop eating,” and she talked to Variety at length about the need to “accommodate everything toward praise and punishment, including your own body.” 

As Britney Spears becomes a free woman for the first time in 13 years, do we have to brace ourselves for the commentary to come about how she’s “bounced back” from a previous physical iteration of herself that people arbitrarily deemed unacceptable? Let’s not forget how Spears was viciously attacked for her appearance after her now notorious 2007 MTV VMA performance, prompting outlets like today.com to ponder, “Did Spears, lest we forget a mother of two, deserve to be held up against the standard of her once fantastically toned abs, sculpted by sessions of 1,000 tummy crunches? Or was she asking for it by choosing that unforgiving black-sequined bikini?” The brutal remarks she’d encountered throughout her career inspired the lyrics to 2007’s Piece of Me (“I’m Mrs. She’s Too Big Now She’s Too Thin”).

To be clear, this normalization of body commentary—both positive and negative—doesn’t affect just celebrities. The cultural custom trickles down and impacts women from all walks of life, and I’ve experienced it firsthand for the better part of three decades as I’ve navigated the tumultuous road of eating disorder recovery. I’ve heard everything from “I’m so jealous of your discipline!” when I was in and out of intensive outpatient programs to “You look healthy now!” when I was heavier but still suffering the mental anguish of anorexia. 

The latest incidence of unsolicited commentary occurred on the heels of publishing the most deeply personal and vulnerability-hangover-inducing essay of my life, regarding my compulsive exercise habits. During a perfectly average dinner of tacos and margaritas, a perfectly average situation ensued, meaning a stranger felt entitled to comment on my body. In this particular instance, while I—a person with an eating disorder so old it could’ve legally been taking tequila shots with me—attempted with all my might to eat my tacos without agonizing over their carb content, our waiter felt compelled to approach our table of four and gesture at my arms. 

“You work out a lot,” he said. Still raw from writing about my workout compulsions, I glanced at my boyfriend and gave the waiter a dumbfounded stare that I am now ashamed to realize morphed into a polite smile because I had no idea how to respond. “Flex for my friend over there,” he said without hesitating to call the attention of his colleague, manning the cash register. “Flex for him now.” I laughed and gave a half-hearted biceps curl before immediately wanting to drown in a vat of salsa. All things considered, it was a mild form of uninvited commentary, given the horrific harassment women face daily. He was, after all, attempting to pay a compliment—or something? But the situation left me feeling uneasy, and even violated, particularly after being so vulnerable about my body and the impact of others’ (very vocal) opinions on my perception of it. 

We know that catcalling sucks, but why is the practice of publicly commenting on women’s bodies (and expecting them to perform on demand: “Flex!”; “Smile!”) still so normalized? And why do women have to keep continuously drawing boundaries and reclaiming their bodies in light of this relentless norm? 

Adele is not going easy on us, baby. 

The pop icon revealed a lot about her love life to Oprah Winfrey in an interview that aired during her One Night Only special on CBS, in anticipation of her new album, 30. Specifically, Adele opened up about her ex-husband, Simon Konecki, and her new boyfriend, sports agent Rich Paul. 

“I think Simon probably saved my life, to be honest with you,” Adele told Winfrey, per Page Six. “He came at such a moment, where the stability that him and Angelo have given me, no one else would ever have been able to give me. Especially at that time, I was so young and I just, I think I would have got a bit lost in all of it.”

She continued, “I could have easily gone down some dodgy paths, you know? And sort of self-destructed from being overwhelmed by all of it. He came in and was stable. The most stable person I’ve ever had in my life up until that point. Even now, I trust him with my life.”

Adele’s new album, 30, is about—in her own words—“divorce, baby, divorce.” But it’s not all sad. Adele has come out of her split from Konecki happier and loving herself more than ever. She’s now in a relationship with sports agent Rich Paul, which was rumored over the summer and became Instagram-official in September. Adele told Winfrey that her relationship with Paul is the first time she’s “loved myself and been open to loving and being loved by someone else.”

“He’s hilarious and very smart,” Adele said. “You know, he’s very, very smart. It’s quite incredible watching him do what he does. And just the easiness of [the relationship]. It’s just, it’s been very smooth.”

One Night Only wasn’t filled with just sad songs and sad discussions about relationships. Oprah Winfrey and Lizzo sang along to Adele’s hit “Hello” during the concert, and there’s an adorable video to prove it. 

Here’s every pop culture thing happening this week you need to know about, from Adele’s album to the third Princess Switch movie: 

Sunday, November 14 

The Business of Birth Control: As Bedatri Choudhury writes, “There can be no real gender justice without an unpacking of the power structures surrounding the reproductive health industry complex—and of the choices that the market pushes on women. Abby Epstein’s latest documentary highlights the dark history of eugenics and underfunded research that the birth control pill, often heralded as a feminist turning point in the history of reproductive rights, hides within itself.” Premiering at DOC NY (SVA Theatre) at 1:30 p.m. ET. Click here for tickets 

Adele: One Night Only: A new interview and concert from Adele ahead of the release of her album, 30. 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS 

Monday, November 15 

Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown: I’m already hungry. 9 p.m. ET on Food Network 

Tuesday, November 16

Feel Your Way Through: A Book of Poetry by Kelsea Ballerini: If you thought Ballerini’s songs were poetry, wait until you read her…literal poetry. Available where you buy books

Wednesday, November 17 

Tiger King 2: The saga continues. Streaming on Netflix 

Thursday, November 18 

Young Sheldon: Per a press release, “Simon Helberg reprises his role as engineer Howard Wolowitz (in voiceover form) to tell the origin story of Sheldon Cooper’s complicated relationship with engineering.” 8 p.m. ET on CBS 

The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star: This time, there are three Vanessa Hudgens(es). Streaming on Netflix 

Friday, November 19 

30: The new album from Adele. Wherever you stream music 

Saturday, November 20 

Christmas Together With You: Read an official description, below. 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark 

“During the Christmas season, Megan and her father-figure Frank head out on a road trip to find his long-lost love. Along the way, Megan finds the love of her own life.”

Adele did not go easy on herself when she got divorced. 

The singer, who announced her divorce from Simon Konecki in 2019, got very candid about it in an interview with Rolling Stone published on Thursday, November 11. 

“Easy On Me,” the first single from Adele’s fourth studio album 30, out November 19, expressed her feelings about the end of the almost decade-long relationship. When the news of Adele’s divorce came out, the internet was flooded with memes and tweets about how devastating her next album would be because of it. “During something like that, that kind of significant thing to happen in life, your mind sort of goes to those places,” Adele told Rolling Stone. “‘Why don’t they like me? Why would they write that if they’ve followed me for 10 years?’ But in reality, that’s not their responsibility. In reality, their responsibility as a fan is to want a good record and to hope I deliver. So I took it with a pinch of salt, and it was fine.”

Adele also recalled to Rolling Stone how she felt about her marriage ending in the public eye. “It made me really sad,” Adele said. “Then having so many people that I don’t know know that I didn’t make that work…it fucking devastated me. I was embarrassed. No one made me feel embarrassed, but you feel like you didn’t do a good job.”

In the interview Adele also opened up about other things, including the fact that 30 is coming out during a pandemic. It was originally supposed to debut last fall. “No one wants to remember this period of time,” Adele said. “Obviously, it’s way better than last year, but the day my album comes out, someone’s loved one will have died from COVID. For them, it’s going to be a reminder every time they hear ‘Easy on Me’ on the radio.”

As of summer 2021, Adele has been dating sports agent Rich Paul. They made it Instagram official in September. She told Rolling Stone that her relationship with Paul is the most “incredible, openhearted, and easiest” relationship she’s ever been in.

Brace yourself for one of the cutest things you will ever see in your entire life: Gabrielle Union shared photos of her daughter’s Halloween costume, which was Adele, and it is adorable. 

Gabrielle Union’s two-year-old daughter Kaavia went for a timely Halloween costume in 2021—Adele’s new album will arrive this November—and it’s not only one of the best kid costumes of the year, but one of the best costumes of the year, full stop.

For the outfit, Kaavia dressed as Adele in the stunning and iconic Schiaparelli look that the ballad queen wore to NBA player Anthony Davis’ wedding in September. The look is a black gown with massive white, 80s-inspired sleeves that hang off the shoulder. It’s accessorized with gold drop earrings, with the hair worn in an updo to show off the dramatic sleeves. 

Adele is always relevant, but Kaavia’s costume was a perfect choice for Halloween 2021 because the singer’s new album, 30, arrives in late November. And her newest single, “Easy On Me,” came out in October, just in time for Halloween. 

Here is Kaavia’s look:

And here is the Adele look that the costume was based on: 

See the accuracy? Kaavia even nailed the photoshoot. 

Gabrielle Union has been really open about motherhood and her journey to it. The actor has adenomyosis, a form of endometritis that often causes infertility. She’s gone through IVF and has had several miscarriages. In 2018, she and her husband Dwayne Wade welcomed Kaavia via surrogate.

In 2019, Union talked to Glamour about being a parent in the public eye. “Part of the journey is being OK with how others—specifically moms—are viewing you, judging you, praising you,” she said.  “You feel raw and exposed and vulnerable.”

Fresh off the release of her single “Easy on Me,” Adele sat courtside at a Lakers-Warriors basketball game with her new beau, Rich Paul. And she looked like an autumnal goddess. 

Dressed in head-to-toe brown, Adele draped herself in a Louis Vuitton patterned coat that’s giving major early-2000s vibes. 

Of course, she matched this with a classic patterned Louis Vuitton bag: 

Wearing her signature winged eyeliner and hair in loose waves, Adele looked polished and pretty, but let’s circle back to that coat. The iconic LV pattern was everywhere in the aughts, appearing mostly in bag form on the arms of countless celebrities. But the logo was stamped on everything from luggage to sunglasses to umbrellas, and while its ubiquity may have waned over the years, it never really went away. 

This isn’t the first time Adele has looked gorgeous at a basketball game. She and Paul took in the NBA Finals over the summer, making their unofficial debut as a couple. (She made things Instagram-official with Paul in September.) 

Adele’s next album, 30, drops November 19, and it might be her most emotional work yet. “I’ve learned a lot of blistering home truths about myself along the way,” she wrote on IG about the record. “I’ve shed many layers but also wrapped myself in new ones. I discovered genuinely useful and wholesome mentalities to lead with, and I feel like I’ve finally found my feeling again. I’d go as far as to say that I’ve never felt more peaceful in my life. And so, I’m ready to finally put this album out.” 

“It’s sensitive for me, this record, just in how much I love it,” Adele told Vogue about the new music. “I always say that 21 doesn’t belong to me anymore. Everyone else took it into their hearts so much. I’m not letting go of this one. This is my album. I want to share myself with everyone, but I don’t think I’ll ever let this one go.”