Are Adele and Rich Paul married? A look at their relationship timeline
Adele has found her one and only.
The superstar singer, 35, has been linked to her partner, Rich Paul, since 2021, and while they keep their relationship mostly private, they certainly seem to be madly in love.
Paul, 41, is a sports agent whose agency, Klutch Sports Group, represents LeBron James, Anthony Davis and other high-profile clients. In 2022, Forbes named Paul one of the most powerful sports agents of the year.
He and Adele met on the dance floor at a friend's party a while back, but it wasn’t until a couple years ago that romance blossomed between them.
Adele told Elle last year that she was “beyond” madly in love with Paul, and rumors have been swirling that the pair are actually married.
“I’ve never been in love like this,” she said to Elle. “I’m obsessed with him.”
Here’s what to know about Adele and Paul’s relationship timeline.
Their relationship began in early 2021
Adele and Paul’s relationship began at the beginning of 2021, according to a profile of the singer in Vogue that year.
However, they had known each other before that, having met a couple years previously at a friend’s party.
“I was a bit drunk. I said: ‘Do you want to sign me? I’m an athlete now,’” Adele recalled to Vogue.
“He’s just so f------ funny,” she added. “He was dancing. All the other guys were just sitting around. He was just dancing away.”
The first time Paul invited her out to dinner solo, he framed it as a “business meeting,” Adele told Oprah Winfrey in their 2021 CBS television special, “Adele: One Night Only.”
“I’m like, a business meeting about what?” Adele joked. “And then it was the first time we ever hung out only on our own, and not go out with friends and stuff like that. So that was a very natural way, I think that’s how people would normally meet each other in real life.”
“He’s also hilarious… and very smart. You know, he’s very, very smart,” she said of Paul. “It’s quite incredible watching him do what he does. And just the easiness of it. It’s just very smooth.”
Dating rumors began to swirl in summer 2021
The couple kept their relationship under wraps throughout the first half of 2021, although Paul hinted that he and an unnamed major pop star were “hanging out” in a May 2021 New Yorker profile.
“Why are you hanging out?” a friend asked, to which Paul replied, “Why not?”
“I’m not dating, I’m single,” Paul added. “Put that in the story.”
In July that year, Adele and Paul fueled romance rumors when they sat side-by-side at an NBA Finals game in Phoenix, Arizona.
“I didn’t mean to go public with it. I just wanted to go to the game. I just love being around him. I just love it,” Adele told Vogue.
They eventually went public with their relationship on Instagram
By September 2021, Adele and Paul appeared to be Instagram official.
The singer shared a post on Sept. 19 that included a pic of her and Paul getting cozy at NBA star Anthony Davis’ wedding, captioning the post with a single red heart emoji.
The celebrity gossip Instagram account Deuxmoi also outed their relationship in 2021, sharing photos of the couple at a discount mall before Adele had the chance to tell everyone in her life about their romance, she told Rolling Stone.
“I didn’t really tell many of my friends at the beginning because I wanted to keep it to myself,” she said.
A giant diamond ring sparked engagement rumors
Adele looked stunning in custom Armani at the Brit Awards in February 2022, but many fans were more focused on her striking new accessory — a gigantic, pear-shaped ring on her left ring finger.
When she sported the same ring a week later on “The Graham Norton Show,” Norton took the opportunity to ask what everyone was wondering: Were she and Paul engaged?
“As if I would ever tell anyone if I was or wasn’t,” the ever-private Adele answered.
“It’s lovely though, isn’t it?” she added jokingly about her eye-catching ring.
“I have to say, as a casual observer, it looks like you are (engaged),” Norton said, but the singer did not take the bait, answering simply, “All right.”
She also declined to confirm or deny whether she was engaged in her September 2022 Elle cover story.
“I’m not married. I’m not married!” she said. “I’m just in loooove! I’m happy as I’ll ever be. I might as well be married.”
She said later in the interview, “I’m not engaged. I just love high-end jewelry, boy!”
Adele also appeared to be wearing multiple rings — including a wedding band, perhaps? — on her left hand as she attended a Lakers vs. Grizzlies game in April 2023. However, she has never confirmed whether these rings have any particular meaning.
Adele and Paul are renovating a home together
In February 2022, Adele bought a mansion that once belonged to Sylvester Stallone for $58 million, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Then, that May, she shared an Instagram photo of her and Paul standing in front of the house holding sets of keys.
“Time flies,” she wrote in the caption.
According to Elle, the couple is renovating the new home together “with a blended family in mind.”
Adele and Paul have both talked about the possibility of having more kids
Adele and Paul have children from previous relationships — Paul has three children, and Adele has a son, Angelo, who turns 11 on Oct. 19 — and they have hinted in interviews that they may be open to having more kids together.
“As a young dad, growing a business, it was pretty tough,” Paul told E! News in June 2022.
“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 added. “I’m really looking forward to being an older dad.”
Adele also opened up to Elle about expanding her family.
“I definitely want more kids,” she said. “I’m a homemaker and I’m a matriarch, and a stable life helps me with my music.”
Adele appeared to refer to Paul as her ‘husband’
Forget the engagement rumors — now, fans are wondering if Adele and Paul are actually already married.
Adele casually mentioned “her husband” during an exchange with a fan, as captured by a fan video on TikTok in September 2023.
“My husband’s here tonight, he’s here,” she told the fan.
“I’m with Rich!” she said a moment later.
She also referred to herself as “a wife” during a recent exchange with fans.
“I’m not the greatest wife when it comes to football, really, even though my partner loves it,” she said in a fan-captured video of the moment shared on the X platform.
Their use of the terms “husband” and “wife” understandably fueled marriage rumors, which Paul addressed — indirectly — on CBS Mornings on Oct. 9.
Asked if he and Adele are married, Paul neatly sidestepped the question.
“She’s been great for me, we’ve been great for each other. And again, I’m starting to understand how people (say), ‘Oh, he said this, he said that.’ I’m just not the type of person to put my personal life — it’s not for the media. It’s not for paparazzi. It’s for us.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com