The tables are turning for pop superstar Adele, who—despite keeping a low profile following her divorce from Simon Konecki, which was finalised in March 2021—has found love stateside.
On July 24, 2021, she and sports agent Rich Paul were seen out on a date at NYC hotspot Cipriani; The Sun obtained photos. The PDA-filled photos seemed to confirm the romance, which was also confirmed by Page Six on July 20, 2021.
Only a few days before the Page Six post, they were seen together for the first time. On July 17, 2021, the British singer was spotted laughing and cheering alongside Paul at Game 5 of the NBA Finals, in which the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Phoenix Suns.
Paul was apparently there alongside his client LeBron James to support friend Chris Paul, a player for the Suns. On a late-night podcast following the game’s conclusion, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst seemingly confirmed the relationship between Paul and the ‘Rolling in the Deep’ singer.
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‘Rich Paul brings his girlfriend to the game to sit next to LeBron. His girlfriend is Adele,’ Windhorst said. ‘This is the first time that they’ve come out in public together.’
Page Six confirmed the two were involved in July 2021, with a source telling the outlet that Adele and Paul are ‘100 per cent’ dating.
It’s possible the two have been an item since May 2021. In a profile of Paul for The New Yorker, interviewer Isaac Chotiner detailed the following exchange between the sports agent and Adam Mendelsohn, a friend and adviser to both Paul and James.
‘She was over yesterday,’ Paul said.
Mendelsohn clarified whom he meant, dropping the name of a major pop star. ‘Doing what?’ he asked.
‘Hanging out,’ Paul replied.
‘Why are you hanging out?’ Mendelsohn asked.
‘Why not?’ Paul replied.
I wasn’t entirely sure whether this exchange was for my benefit.
Paul said, ‘I’m not dating, I’m single. Put that in the story.’ He laughed for the first time all day.
The ‘major pop star’ in question is almost undoubtedly Adele, and the couple made their relationship official in the months since the article’s release. Adele later confirmed their engagement in August 2024 as well as the couple’s plans to have children together.
While Adele is very well known, Paul has a storied career of his own. Here’s what we know about the agent’s background and his love story with Adele.
Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, in the neighbourhood of Glenville, 41-year-old Paul became a sports agent after meeting a teenaged James at the Akron-Canton Airport in 2002. Paul was wearing a Houston Oilers jersey that caught James’s eye, and the two of them stayed in touch, eventually becoming such close confidantes that Paul went to work at Creative Artists Agency, under James’s then-agent Leon Rose. Developing a strong business savvy, he was eventually able to strike out on his own.
Today, Paul has his own agency—Klutch Sports Group, which he started in 2012—and is one of the most well-known agents in sports. His clients include James, Philadelphia 76ers player Ben Simmons, Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis, and Golden State Warriors player Draymond Green, among a slew of others.
Windhorst—the podcaster and ESPN reporter who revealed Adele was Paul’s ‘girlfriend’—has written several books about James and has developed a close relationship with Paul as well. He told the New Yorker‘s Chotiner, ‘The burden that Rich faces is that people question his legitimacy. They want to delegitimise him because of his race, because of his lack of education, because he used to sell jerseys out of the trunk of his car. If that’s the best they can do, they have to do a lot better.’
In March 2021, around the time Paul supposedly started ‘hanging out’ with Adele, The Hollywood Reporter announced that the sports agent would release a memoir titled Lucky Me. The book is a coming-of-age story to be published by Roc Lit 101, the publishing division of Jay-Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation.
The memoir will apparently follow Paul’s upbringing in Cleveland, his relationship with his family, as well as his rise to the top of his field in sports.
‘Lucky Me is more than my story,’ Paul revealed in a press statement. ‘Lucky Me is the story of every young Black man who grew up like me. I want to use my story to uplift and inspire those who lived this and educate those who didn’t. I cannot tell you what it means to partner with my friend and mentor Jay-Z on this project. Lucky Me was the name of the book before I even spoke with Jay because his music was my life’s soundtrack.’
The first photos of the couple together were taken during the NBA Finals, though they certainly looked at ease court-side.
An eyewitness at the game told Entertainment Tonight, ‘They had their eyes on each other almost as much as they did on the game!’
It took just days for media outlets to confirm the news that Windhorst broke: Adele and Paul truly are a couple. Page Six was told by a source that ‘they are [definitely] dating.’ Details about what their relationship is like or how they met remain private at this point.
People got a little more insight on July 20 about Adele and Paul’s timeline. The outlet was told by a source that their relationship isn’t brand, brand new. A source said that they’ve actually been dating for ‘a few months.’ Paul and Adele’s reps didn’t respond to the outlet’s request for comment, a hint that the two are likely keep their relationship details as private as possible.
E! spoke to a source close to Adele in early August about why the singer has been more willing to have her romance with Paul in the spotlight. The source called their relationship ‘bit of a whirlwind.’
That said, ‘she’s very happy and loves being with him.’ Paul is ‘outgoing’ and wants to ‘out and about,’ which Adele has ’embraced,’ the outlet’s source said. ‘She’s not as concerned about being private with her life because she’s very happy with Rich.’
People was told by a source on September 1 that Paul and Adele’s relationship isn’t just causal anymore. ‘They went to LeBron James’ party together,’ a source told the outlet. ‘He often brings her around his friends. She seems to be getting along with everyone. They act like they are getting more serious.’
‘She is having fun dating Rich,’ the source added. ‘They spend a lot of time together. Adele seems very happy.’
Adele slipped a picture of herself posing with Paul at a party into a slideshow of her beautiful strapless dress on Instagram. The two were at a the wedding LA Lakers star Anthony Davis.
The photo booth image shows them smiling and happy and very much in couple mode.
Rich Paul accompanied Adele to London, where she is preparing for her show at the London Palladium next week, E! News reports. This will be Adele’s first show in the U.K. in four years and it’s the first time Paul has joined her in her own country. They have also met one another’s kids, and a source told E! in September that their relationship has ‘become more serious in the last few months’ and the singer is ‘very much in love with Rich.’
Taking him back home with her to England does seem serious. Her show will be available as an ITV special, An Audience With Adele, beginning November 21.
Adele opened up a little about Paul to Rolling Stone in the magazine’s cover story about her ahead of 30‘s release. Celebrity gossip Instagram DeuxMoi outed her relationship with the sports agent, Adele said. ‘I didn’t really tell many of my friends at the beginning because I wanted to keep it to myself,’ she said. The two first appeared together at a discount mall. ‘None of them believed it!’
She added that Paul has met her son, and their relationship is ‘incredible, openhearted, and [the] easiest [one]’ she has ever been in because of the self-growth and healing she’s done.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey during her Adele: One Night Only TV special, the singer opened up about her relationship with Paul and what makes it so special. She said it’s the first time she’s truly ‘loved myself and been open to loving and being loved by someone else.’ So, Winfrey asked, is the lucky sports agent getting a different Adele than everyone else has gotten?
‘Yeah,’ Adele answered hesitantly. ‘By arriving and turning up [for myself], maybe I’m getting a different version of him at all. It’s just timing. It’ll be interesting to see what my reaction will be 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.’
Adele showed off her new kicks on Instagram Stories, a pair of white New Balance 550s that are a collaboration between the brand and her boyfriend, Rich Paul, even featuring his name on the sneakers’ tongue.
‘Congratulations @richpaul,’ she wrote across the post.
The collaboration between Paul and New Balance will also include apparel. These white shoes have a classic look and feature blue and yellow accents. Adele shared yet another image of them from further away, posting hearts over the photo.
She was also wearing a pair of cream sweatpants with blue stripes, matching the shoe’s colour story.
On Thursday, December 16, the couple appeared at SoFi Stadium with Jay-Z and LeBron James’ business partner Maverick Carter in a luxury suite. They were photographed holding hands by ESPN as they enjoyed the Kansas City Chiefs-L.A. Chargers game.
James joked about the photos on his Twitter account, quote-tweeting the images and asking, ‘Who the heck are Jay-Z and Adele’s +1s????’
Obviously, both Paul and Carter are quite well-known the the NBA star.
Adele and Paul’s relationship quietly remains on and strong. While the two were apart on Adele’s 34th birthday, People reports the couple had dinner in Napa Valley on May 8.
‘Adele is still seeing Rich,’ a source said. ‘They are both very busy though. She is working on her residency and Rich is busy with his clients. They see each other when they can.’
On June 25, Adele and Rich Paul attended Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Kate Bock’s wedding at the New York Public Library. A photo of them in their full glam was posted to LeBron James’ Instagram account. They stood as a couple across from James and his wife, Savannah James.
Adele wore an off-the-shoulder black gown that ended at just her ankles and which was draped with sheer tulle fabric. She was wearing pointed black pumps and carried a black clutch. Paul was in a black tuxedo tailored to fit the Great Gatsby theme of the evening with a classic fit.
James captioned the photo, ‘ICONIC.’
On June 11, 2022, during interview with E! News, Paul seemed to hint that he’d be open to having more children and being an ‘older dad.’
‘As a young dad, growing a business, it was pretty tough,’ he said. ‘But now looking as an older dad and my kids being much older, and obviously, if I was to have more kids … I’m looking forward to being a different dad, a more patient dad.’
In an interview with BBC Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs on July 1, 2022, Adele said she’d ‘definitely like a couple more kids’ with Paul. She has one child now, nine-year-old son Angelo, who she shares with her ex-husband, Simon Konecki.
‘I would definitely love a couple more kids,’ she said. ‘It would be wonderful. If not, I’ve got Angelo.’
Adele has mentioned wanting to have more children before, saying in an interview on the Graham Norton Show in February that her recently cancelled Caesars Palace Las Vegas residency would ‘absolutely 100% happening this year.’
She explained, ‘It has to happen this year because I’ve got plans for next year. Imagine if I have to cancel because I am having a baby!’
During a late August Las Vegas residency show, Adele spoke to two fans about her hope to have another child on the sooner side. ‘I really want to be a mom again soon, so every time I see a name I like, I write it down in my phone,’ Adele said, via Entertainment Tonight. ‘I can’t say Parker because Rich likes that name.’ Adele noted that she likes the names Ray and Spencer.
Adele was featured on the cover of ELLE‘s September issue, where she gushed about how her relationship with the sports agent is unlike anything she’s ever experienced.
‘I’ve never been in love like this. I’m obsessed with him,’ she announced. When asked if she’d consider remarrying following her divorce from ex-husband Simon Konecki, Adele answered, ‘Yes, absolutely.’
She went to say, ‘I definitely want more kids. I’m a homemaker and I’m a matriarch, and a stable life helps me with my music. But right now, all I got in my brain is [my upcoming Las Vegas residency]. I wanna f*cking nail it.’
Paul celebrated his 41st birthday on December 16, 2022. Adele serenaded her sweetheart while on stage at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. She sang him ‘Happy Birthday,’ and naturally, it went viral. Fans took to Twitter to share the wholesome moment.
‘It’s my boyfriend’s birthday today, and I love him more than life itself,’ she said. ‘Can we wish him happy birthday?’
Adele played coy when she sparked Paul engagement rumours last February by wearing a diamond ring on her left ring finger to the BRIT Awards. She said, days after on the Graham Norton Show while still wearing the ring, ‘If I was [engaged], would I ever tell anyone if I was or wasn’t?’
A year later at the end of February 2023, unverified celeb gossip Instagram DeuxMoi claimed that Adele and Paul really were engaged and planning to get married in the summer, per a ‘reliable source.’ DeuxMoi did not disclose who this source was or what makes them reliable, however, and Adele has not ever confirmed her engagement. It’s just more fodder to the engagement rumour.
Adele and Paul had a casual date on Friday, April 28, attending the NBA game at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles where the city’s Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies were facing each other in the playoffs. The singer was wearing a grey tracksuit from Klutch Athletics, her fiancé’s sportswear brand he co-authored with New Balance. Though the outfit was relaxed, she had on some glam makeup, including a smokey eye and dark lipstick.
Paul was also in a tracksuit set, this one in patterned white and green with a zippered jacket.
On Saturday, May 6, the couple were seen on another date at the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles for the 2023 NBA playoffs. The singer was wearing a two piece made of flowing tan fabric with loose slacks and matching button down. She paired the look with black sandal heels and hold hoops that matched her necklaces and bracelets. Paul wore a black tracksuit with green details over a white t-shirt underneath and a pair of colourful sneakers. They were seated next to actress Nia Long and the stadium was full of other celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian, Rob Zombie, Kevin Hart, and Michael B. Jordan.
The couple has been regularly calling each other husband and wife despite not being married, and Adele has made headlines for doing it during her Las Vegas residency.
A source told Us Weekly that Paul actually started calling Adele his wife two months into dating.
‘They aren’t married but they do call each other husband and wife and have been for a while now,’ the source said. ‘Adele loved the security [of it] and how much he adores her.’
Paul himself offered some details to Gayle King on his life with Adele during his CBS Mornings interview.
‘You know, Gayle, I don’t really talk about my personal life publicly, but if I’m going to give anybody some tea, it’s going to be [you],’ he prefaced. ‘Let me say this: She’s been great, I think she would agree that we’ve definitely helped each other. I’m in a good space, we’re in a good space. Happy. She’s superb.’
‘She’s been great for me. We’ve been great for each other,’ he continued, before stressing again, ‘I’m just not the kind of person to put my personal life—it’s not for the media. It’s not for the paparazzi. It’s for us.’
When King asked if the next time she sees Adele, she should say, ‘Hi Mrs. Paul,’ Paul played it coy. ‘You can say whatever you want,’ he responded.
Two tipsters told DeuxMoi that while attending Alan Carr’s November 18 Los Angeles comedy show, Adele confirmed the long-standing rumours that she married Paul. Carr had asked the audience if anyone got married recently, and Adele yelled out, ‘I did!’
The couple were seen on Wednesday, November 23, court side at the Lakers and Mavericks game at the Los Angeles Crypto.com Arena. It seemed like Adele was flashing her engagement ring finger, which appeared to be adorned with a giant diamond.
In July 2024, Adele was seen wearing another ring, this time a pear-shaped diamond, on her left hand. The couple were photographed sitting court side at a Team USA basketball game in London.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in December 2023, Adele was asked about her experience reading Paul’s memoir Lucky Me: A Memoir of Changing the Odds, which made the New York Times best seller list. Writer Mesfin Fekadu wanted to know if the songstress had learnt anything new about her rumoured husband.
‘Rich and I have always known everything about each other since the day we got together,’ she replied. ‘It was very emotional reading about his mum, because obviously she’s not with us, so I’ve never met her. And she’s such a big part of Rich and the kids and the kids’ mum’s life and stuff like that. But I knew all about it. I’m getting a bit emotional.’
At this point, she started to cry, then added, ‘It was hard for him to write that.’
Another tidbit about Paul is that while she doesn’t listen to her own music, he does.
‘It drives me insane,’ Adele admitted. ‘And it’s funny because in my car with my driver, he knows if my song comes on, he has to turn the radio, just turn it off. I don’t like it at all.’
Adele and Paul were spotted out together for his birthday celebration on Dec. 16, 2023 at The Classic Cat in West Hollywood. Daily Mail ran photos here of Adele arriving with him in a low-cut top, with her hair down.
Adele and Paul started 2024 off in private. At the end of April though, the couple stepped out for their first NBA date night of the year. They attended the Lakers’ game against the Denver Nuggets. Adele paired a white blouse with a black blazer, slacks, and white heels. Paul wore a black outfit too with a jean jacket.
During a performance at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Adele admitted to the audience that she has plans to have a baby with Paul. This would be her second child, but her first with Paul.
‘Once I am done with all my obligations and all of my shows, I want to have a baby,’ she said from the stage, according to Daily Mail. ‘I want a girl because I’ve already got a boy. I feel like she might be like the person I love the most in the world, but also probably hate the most in the world—that is what I feel will happen.’
The singer joked, ‘She’s going to put me in my place all the time, isn’t she? With me as her mother and Rich as her father, she’s going to be a bossy little queen, isn’t she?’
Paul, who has three kids of his own, previously told E! News in 2022, ‘Now looking as an older dad, if I was to have more kids, I’m looking forward to being a different dad,’ adding that he’d like to become ‘a more patient dad.’
‘You know, I have a daughter that’s a junior in college, so I was a very young dad, but now, different age, different time in my life, different position in my life,’ he continued. “I’m really looking forward to being an older dad.’
Page Six reported that, also during her Vegas show, Adele gave a special shoutout to his daughter, Reonna Simone, calling her her ‘step-daughter.’ She recently graduated from Clark Atlanta University.
‘It is my stepdaughter’s graduation this weekend,’ she told her fans. ‘So, I love you darling.’
On Friday, July 19, the couple were seen leaving celebrity hotspot Chiltern Firehouse in London. The couple were photographed holding hands and the singer held up her gold clutch purse to cover her face from the cameras.
On Friday, August 2, Adele began her residence in Munich and made a comment some are interpreting as an allusion to her rumoured engagement. Before singing, she jokingly told the crowd, ‘What’s going on in my personal life? Nothing because I’ve been getting ready for this.’
Adele turned down a fan proposal during her August 9 Munich show and casually dropped her own big news. She told the fan and the rest of the crowd, ‘I can’t marry you because I’m already getting married so I can’t.’ She raised her left hand in the clip shared to X, formerly known as Twitter. The engagement confirmation comes after weeks of rumours.
Adele has talked about wanting to have another child at some point and on Saturday, August 31, during the final night of her Munich shows, she indicated she might have the time for a new big project very soon. The singer still has shows to do for the final leg of her Las Vegas residency, but she told the audience in Germany that she will be taking an extended break afterwards.
‘I will not see you for an incredibly long time, and I will hold you dear in my heart,’ she said in a TikTok clip from the show.
In May, Adele told the audience in Vegas, ‘Once I am done with all my obligations and all of my shows, I want to have a baby. I want a girl because I’ve already got a boy. I feel like she might be like the person I love the most in the world, but also probably hate the most in the world—that is what I feel will happen. She’s going to put me in my place all the time, isn’t she?’
Additional reporting by Hilary Weaver and Lauren Puckett-Pope.
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