Say “hello” to Adele’s leading man, Rich Paul.
The Grammy-winning singer seemingly confirmed she tied the knot with the sports agent and Jay-Z protégé in November 2023.
An attendee at Alan Carr’s Los Angeles comedy show claimed to the gossip Instagram account DeuxMoi at the time, “Adele was in the audience. Alan asked the crowd if anyone got married recently and Adele shouted ‘I did.'”
The “Rolling in the Deep” singer had also referred to herself as Paul’s “wife” on multiple occasions, including at her Las Vegas residency show in September 2023.
The couple was spotted together for the first time at the NBA Finals in July 2021 — two months after Paul teased in a New Yorker profile that he and Adele had been “hanging out.”
After their first public appearance together made waves on social media, a source told Pvnew the pair were “[definitely] dating.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the man who stole Adele’s heart.
He is a big-time sports agent.
Paul’s agency, Klutch Sports Group, is a part of United Talent Agency and represents LeBron James, Ben Simmons, John Wall and Anthony Davis, among other NBA players.
He launched the agency in 2012, with Forbes reporting that Klutch received over $1 billion in contract values and the company’s football division represented two of the first three players who were drafted in 2020.
He is an author.
Paul penned his first memoir, “Lucky Me,” for Roc Lit 101 — the publishing division of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
He wrote about his childhood in Cleveland and the lessons he’s learned during his rise to prominence.
“‘Lucky Me’ is more than my story,” Paul told the Hollywood Reporter in March 2021. “’Lucky Me’ is the story of every young black man who grew up like me. I want to use my story to uplift and inspire those who lived this and educate those who didn’t.”
He added, “I cannot tell you what it means to partner with my friend and mentor Jay-Z on this project. ‘Lucky Me’ was the name of the book before I even spoke with Jay because his music was my life’s soundtrack.”
He wanted to be an athlete.
Paul told the New Yorker in June 2021 that he “definitely wanted to be an athlete” growing up and played basketball and football.
However, he said that while his “heart is big,” he was “small in size,” so he switched passions to become “an entrepreneur and businessman” who studies players’ behavior.
Paul eventually began selling sports jerseys and met his first client, James, in 2002 while waiting for a flight to Atlanta.
The duo began working together — and the rest is history.
He had a rough childhood.
Paul’s mother, Peaches, battled drug abuse, forcing him to live with his grandmother and a great-uncle growing up.
“I was never really angry, but I was definitely protective, and I was definitely sad in a lot of ways,” he told the New Yorker. “Because, as a kid, you see other kids and their experience with their parents, and you want the same.”
When Paul was in college at the University of Akron, his father was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. He dropped out of school after his father, Rich Sr., died weeks later.
“I always wanted to work,” he said. “But I still probably would have finished school if my father was alive. I never wanted to let him down.”
James told the publication that he believed Paul’s childhood actually helped him in the business world as an adult.
“A lot of these kids that are being brought into these situations and being drafted, they are first-generation money-makers, they are from the inner city, they are from either single-parent households or from two-parent households, but they are from what we call the hood,” the NBA star said.
“And Rich and I are from that as well, so he can relate to these kids. There is nothing they’ve seen that he hasn’t seen, so he is able to have real conversations with them.”
He has children.
Paul has three children but has never been married, according to the New Yorker.
Adele, for her part, finalized her divorce from Simon Konecki in March 2021. She first filed paperwork to end their marriage in September 2019 after splitting that April. The exes share a son, Angelo.
