Pop icon, Adele, apparently has a new fella! The 33-year-old — who finalized her divorce from Simon Konecki in April 2021 — seemingly confirmed her romance with Rich Paul on July 24th, as the pair were papped on a PDA-filled date in New York.
Just days before, they were spotted together for the first time, when she was seen laughing alongside the sports agent at Game 5 of the NBA finals on July 17th. On a podcast following the game, ESPN's Brian Windhorst stated:
"Rich Paul brings his girlfriend to the game to sit next to LeBron. His girlfriend is Adele. This is the first time that they’ve come out in public together."
While Paul may not be a household name in the same vein as the singer, he's incredibly successful in his own right. Here's everything we know about him...
How old is Rich Paul and what does he do?
The 40-year-old is one of the best-known agents in sports — with his clients including LeBron James, Ben Simmons, Anthony Davis, and Draymond Green.
Paul, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, founded his own sports agency in 2012, named Klutch Sports Group.
Per The New York Times, he became a sports agent after running into a teenage James at the Akron-Canton Airport back in 2002.
Paul, who was 21 years old at the time, was selling vintage sports jerseys out of the trunk of his car, when James spotted him wearing a Houston Oilers jersey with the name of the quarterback Warren Moon on it. The Lakers player was impressed, and the pair stayed in touch.
James told the publication that the pair talked about "basketball, football, and the greatest that have ever played the game. And then just about being a Black kid growing up in the inner city, and the struggles that come with that."
When James signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003, he began paying Paul a salary of 48,000 as an investment into their future relationship. Several years later, Paul went onto work at Creative Artists Agency, under James's ex-agent, Leon Rose.
"I have always felt that he had a purpose, and that’s why I kept him around," the basketball player commented. "I knew he was going to be something more than even what he thought he could possibly be at the time. It was just a feeling I had."
ESPN's Brian Windhorst, who has written a number of books about James, and shares a close relationship with Paul, told the New Yorker Chotiner: "The burden that [Paul] faces is that people question his legitimacy. They want to delegitimize him because of his race, because of his lack of education, because he used to sell jerseys out of the trunk of his car. If that’s the best they can do, they have to do a lot better."
He's writing a memoir
In March of 2021, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the sports agent is penning a memoir, titled Lucky Me.
The coming-of-age story — which will chart Paul's upbringing in Cleveland, his relationship with his family, as well as his career — is set to be published by Roc Lit 100; the publishing division behind Jay-Z's Roc Nation.
In a press statement, Paul stated: "Lucky Me is more than my story. 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. 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."
Paul and Adele may have been dating for some time
While Page Six confirmed that Paul and Adele were involved on July 20th, 2021, with an insider asserting that the pair are "100 per cent dating", there are reports that they actually began seeing each other as early as May.
In a profile of Paul for The New Yorker, interviewer Isaac Chotiner referenced an exchange between Paul and Adam Mendelsohn, which mentioned that Paul was "hanging out" with a "major pop star".
