Adele reveals the ‘real reason’ why she’s only released four albums

Adele at the Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment event in Beverly Hills on Thursday.
Stefanie Keenan/The Hollywood Reporter/Getty Images
CNN —

Adele says there’s a reason why she’s only released four albums, and it’s not what you may think.

While accepting the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award on Thursday at the Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment event, Adele admitted on stage that she feels “a little bit out of my depth” receiving the award considering she’s only released four albums in her 17-year career.

“It feels like I only really just arrived,” she said.

Following the success of her 2008 debut album “19,” she went on to release “21” in 2011, “25” in 2015 and “30” in 2021.

During her speech Thursday, Adele said that she sometimes wonders “if people think I’m calculated when I disappear for years on end” between albums, or that she’s “elusive” and believes “less is more.”

Well, it’s none of the above, according to Adele.

The “real reason” she’s only released four albums to date is based on a decision that she made after she “fell pregnant” at the height of her hugely popular 2011 album “21,” which she said many would’ve considered “career suicide.”

“However, always wanting to go against the grain it was there and then I chose to reject scarcity as excess and the idea of you have to be constantly relevant to be successful, and that perhaps, just maybe, I can be a hit both on and off the stage,” she said.

“And you’ll never guess what. [I] f— got away with it,” she proudly said on stage as the audience cheered and applauded.

The reason why, she said, is because “of all the sacrifices the women before me have made.”

“It’s because of them that I have every right to be the boss at work, and the boss at home,” she added.