Adele and her boyfriend Rich Paul had hit a "rough patch" just prior to her abruptly pulling the plug on her Las Vegas residency show, according to a source close to the singer.
Page Six reported that the singer retreated to Rich's Los Angeles home after hightailing it out of Vegas over a week ago, and she's yet to leave. Behind closed doors, Rich, a sports super agent, is reportedly helping her renegotiate her contract with Caesars Palace, where her show was set to begin on Jan. 21.
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Incidentally, this is all happening as Adele's romance is supposedly on the rocks.
"She and Rich had been fighting, and their relationship was volatile before she canceled her dates," the source told the New York Post's gossip section. "Adele is very emotional and dramatic. He's an NBA guy who has to go on the road — they are very different — and they hit a rough patch."
In fact, Rich did not join Adele in Vegas in the days leading up to what would have been opening night.
"There's chatter about why Rich wasn't in Las Vegas to support Adele — even the day before the show would have launched. Was he even going to be there for the debut? It's another red flag pointing to relationship conflict as a factor in the cancellation," a second source said. "At first, we took her emotional calls [to Paul] to be about concerns with the show, but many of the conversations were actually fights."
Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag
Page Six had previously hinted that Rich was a factor in the residency axing.
"Adele's been crying and couldn't get through a single full rehearsal for the past month," an insider said last month, adding that the chart-topper was "constantly on the phone with Rich … loudly shouting and sobbing" and "barely rehearsed" because she was "constantly in the middle of an emotional shootout."
The first source said on Jan. 31 that the tumultuous relationship played into Adele unpreparedness.
"Adele didn't show up in Vegas until almost the last minute — in production terms — we think partly because of her issues with Paul," the initial source said, who also echoed rumors that the "Hello" singer was at odds with her set designer. "And when she got there, Adele hated the production and the set, and didn't have enough time to change it."
Adele seemed to hit back at reports of turmoil on Instagram on Feb. 1 while also promoting an upcoming appearance at the Brit Awards.
"Rich sends his love," she wrote at the end of post, which coincidentally showed her holding a playing card, perhaps a nod to Vegas, where she has yet to reschedule.
In her 11th hour Vegas postponement, Adele blamed COVID as the main culprit. However, in the wake of those claims, a report emerged alleging the singer balked at Caesars' request she perform "Skyfall" with a 60-person choir. Then, on Jan. 24, The Sun reported that one of the singer's biggest sticking points centered on a swimming pool set she would have used during "Easy On Me."
"When she saw the finished design, she refused to take part," a source told the British outlet. "Adele described the pool as a 'baggy old pond' and refused, point blank, to stand in the middle of it. The intention was to fill it with water on the set as she was lifted up on a crane-type mechanism, creating the illusion she was floating on water."
There is chatter that Adele may never make up the Vegas dates.
