Adele's Oprah interview: What we learned ahead of the much-awaited album release

Adele said she is “embarrassed” about her split from ex-husband Simon Konecki and revealed they do not talk about her highly anticipated new album, despite remaining friends.

The singer described the process of divorce and “turning up for yourself” every day as “exhausting” in an interview with Oprah Winfrey as part of a two hour special on CBS to launch the album, titled 30.

It is the first time she has discussed the matter publicly and said she was “disappointed” for herself and her son, Angelo.

“I’ve been obsessed with a nuclear family my whole life because I never came from one,” she said.

“From a very young age I promised myself that when I had kids we’d stay together and we would be that united family and I tried for a really really long time.

“I was just so disappointed for my son, I was disappointed for myself.”

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Adele said she had revealed to her friends that she was unhappy in her marriage but that it had helped her make the decision to separate from Konecki.

“I do remember with my friends… we were answering these questions in this very bougie magazine,” she said.

“It was something like ‘what’s something about you no-one would ever know?’ and I just said it.

“I was like ‘I’m really not happy, I’m not living, I’m just plodding along.’

“But it was when I admitted to my own friends who thought I was really happy… it was from there that it was like ‘well what am I doing it for?’

“I’m just embarrassed I didn’t make my marriage work.”

Speaking about her new song Hold On, which she performed for the first time as part of the special, she said: “My friends would always say ‘hold on’ when I would feel like I am in the lyrics and the verse.

“But it was just exhausting trying to keep going with it. It’s a process.

“The process of a divorce, the process of being a single parent, the process of not seeing your child every single day – (that) wasn’t really a plan that I had when I became a mum.

“The process of arriving for yourself every single day, turning up for yourself every single day and still running a home and a business.

“So many people know what I’m talking about and I feel like that as well, I juggle those things as well.”

What else did we learn from the Adele interview?

• 'Uncomfortable' decision for her son

Adele added she feels “very uncomfortable” that she chose to dismantle her son’s life with her divorce but could not ignore her own happiness.

The Rolling in the Deep singer said her highly anticipated album 30 is dedicated to her son Angelo and is a way to show him him “who I am”.

She told Oprah it was “as loving” to leave an unhappy relationship than to stay in one for the benefit of one’s children.

“I was ignoring my own happiness … and I knew that, as an adult, Angelo would be livid with me for doing that,” she said.

“When he became an adult he’d be furious with me, and I didn’t want that either.”

• On good terms

Despite the split she and Konecki remain on good terms, living across the street from each other in Los Angeles.

The Brit Award and Grammy winner said Konecki had “saved her life” and that it was hard to talk to Angelo about the divorce.

“The stability that him and Angelo have given me, no-one else would have ever been able to give me – especially at that time in my life. I was so young,” she said.

“I could easily have gone some pretty dodgy paths … and sort of self-destructed.”

She added: “Even now I trust (Konecki) with my life … I think they were angels sent to me, that’s how I feel.

“We don’t talk about (the album) … but he knows what kind of artist I am. That I have to dig deep to tell my stories.”

• A surprise proposal

Meanwhile a couple got engaged as a surprise organised by Adele during her concert.

The couple, named by Oprah as Quentin and Ashley, shared the moment with millions of people after it was broadcast on CBS as part of the singer’s album launch special.

Quentin led his now fiance blindfolded to the stage before getting down on one knee and telling her to remove it.

Adele struggled to contain her excitement, telling the audience – filled with many famous faces – “be quiet or I’ll kill you.”

After Ashley had accepted, Adele ushered them into the front row to sit with Lizzo and Melissa McCarthy, before giving a rendition of Make You Feel My Love.

The singer joked: “Thank God you said yes because I didn’t know who I was going to sing this song to next, you or him.

“Look at her, she’s so in shock. Oh that was lovely I had a little cry.”