The heartbreak that inspired Adele to pen her Grammy-award-winning music was inspired by an ex-boyfriend who left her for her gay friend, a new biography claims.
The doomed relationship is the focus of "Adele: The Biography," an unauthorized tome which also traces the singer-songwriter's early childhood in London.
As the Daily Mail reports, author Marc Shapiro pays particular attention to the alleged incident, which took place on Adele's 18th birthday and went on to inspire her music.
"One thing we know is that it was a first love gone terribly bad," Shapiro writes in the book, quotes from which have been published by the Daily Mail among other publications.
"Adele had professed her love and he did the same, she had known he was bisexual but, in the rush of romance, felt they could make it work. Four hours after laying their emotional cards on the table, the boy ran off with one of Adele's gay friends!"
Interestingly, a 2011 interview in Out magazine also noted that Adele had written two songs, "Hometown Glory" and "Daydreamer," about a bisexual boy she had fallen in love with, but gave few other details about the relationship. Both of those tracks ended up on the eight-time Grammy Award winner's 2008 debut album, "19."
In his book, Shapiro also sheds light on Adele's alleged drinking problem, noting that she "loved the drama surrounding boys who treated her badly," from the non-existent relationship with her father to the bisexual boyfriend's cheating.
"Adele would drink more than normal to salve the heartbreak," Shapiro told In Touch Weekly. He also notes that midway through Adele's first tour, "she allegedly had a drinking problem."