Rich Paul has given a rare public account of how he and Adele went from acquaintances to a couple, saying their relationship developed organically after they were introduced through a friend. On the June 9 episode of Craig Melvin’s Glass Half Full podcast, Paul said the pair had known each other for some time before romance entered the picture.
That detail lands now because Paul and Adele have kept their relationship relatively private since they started dating in 2021, leaving fans to piece together their story from occasional comments and appearance-based clues. Paul, who founded Klutch Sports Group and represents athletes including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, A’ja Wilson and Tyrese Maxey, has not often spoken about his personal life in public, which is part of why even a casual explanation can draw attention.
Paul said he was not especially familiar with Adele’s music when they first met, even though he knew the biggest hits. “Obviously, you can’t help but to hear the monster hits,” he said, adding that he knew some of the songs but not all of “the joints that I know now.” He said they kept crossing paths in the same circles, where they would see each other, laugh and joke.
For a while, he said, things stayed strictly friendly. “We just used to always see each other, laugh and joke. It was just cordial, really, just cordial,” Paul said. Then, he added, the dynamic shifted. “Until it became not so cordial. Until I became a person of interest,” he joked. It is the closest he came to describing when friendship turned into romance, and he did not put a date on that change.
He also brushed off the idea that he had come into the relationship trying too hard. “You know, just when you’re in these circles, man, you’re in these circles. But I never tried to get fresh with people that’s in comfortable circles because they always have to deal with that, so that was never my thing. It was really something that happened very organically, really,” he said. Paul added, “I’m the best singer in the house,” a line that fit the easy humor he used throughout the conversation.
The couple’s relationship surfaced publicly in 2021, and it drew fresh notice in 2024 when Adele answered a fan’s poster at one of her concerts with, “Will you marry me?” She followed that with, “I can’t marry you because I’m already getting married, so I can’t.” Paul did not address those engagement rumors on the podcast, and he did not say when, exactly, cordial friendship gave way to something more serious.
