For first time, Adele opens up about her battle with post-natal depression

By MiNDFOOD

Adele has admitted she's "too scared" to have another child after her experience with post-natal depression
Adele has admitted she's "too scared" to have another child after her experience with post-natal depression
Rumoured to be coming Down Under in March, the Hello star admits: I don't know if I want another child

Rumoured to be heading Down Under for March concerts, Adele has spoken for the first time about her battle with post-natal depression, which has left her feeling she does not want to have another child.

While promoting her hit album 25 last year, the English singer-songwriter said she no longer felt the urge to write sad love songs because motherhood had made her so happy.

But Adele, 28, has revealed in a new interview with Vanity Fair that soon after the birth of son Angelo in 2012, she endured a crippling bout of post-natal depression.

Asked if she planned to have another baby, Adele said: “I’m too scared. I had really bad postpartum depression [the US term for the condition] after I had my son, and it frightened me. I didn’t talk to anyone about it. I was very reluctant.

“My knowledge of postpartum – or post-natal, as we call it in England – is that you don’t want to be with your child. You’re worried you might hurt your child. You’re worried you aren’t doing a good job.”

But it affected her differently. She was “obsessed” with her child but felt “very inadequate.

“I felt like I’d made the worst decision of my life,” she continued. “Eventually I just said, ‘I’m going to give myself an afternoon a week, just to do whatever I want without my baby’.”

Taking regular time out for herself often leaves her feeling guilty, but she believes it’s the best way to get through the challenges of being a new mother to Angelo, who has an older sister from 42-year-old Konecki’s previous marriage. Last week the couple announced their engagement after five years together.

The singer took four years off between albums to focus on Angelo, now 4.

She said he had made her a more emotional person “in every single way possible.”

Which means that success, and especially performing, mean much less to her. “I’d still like to make records, but I’d be fine if I never heard (the applause) again,” Adele said.

One reason: she’s irritated by cellphones lighting up during her concerts because audiences are focusing more on their little screens than on her.

“People would rather have a photo to show to people than actually enjoy a moment,” she said. “It’s weird — when I first started out, nearly 10 years ago, no one had their phones out. I’d go onstage to people. Now I go on stage to 18,000 phones.”

She claims, “I don’t care about money. I’m British, and we don’t have that thing of having to earn more money all the time. I don’t come from money; it’s not that important a part of my life.

“The problem is you can’t talk about the downside of fame, because people have hope, and they cling to the hope of what it would be like to be famous, to be adored, to be able to create and do nice things.”

So far as Adele’s Australian and New Zealand fans are concerned, it’s understood she will play concerts in five Australian cities and Auckland in March. An official announcement on the dates is expected in a few days.

Her 2016 tour has been a huge success and is expected to earn her over $A245m / $NZ260m before Christmas.

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