Emeli Sande felt as though she was having a "breakdown" when her marriage ended after a year.
The ‘Clown’ singer tied the knot with her long-time boyfriend Adam Gouraguine, a marine biologist from Montenegro, in September 2012 but within 12 months the relationship was over.
Emeli admits she felt "lost" during the time she was married because of her hectic work schedule and the fact that her personal life was in a bad place and she will forever be grateful to her family for their support during that time.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph newspaper, she said: "I just felt I had to wake up. I don’t know, it was just a real … I don’t want to call it a breakdown, but it felt like that."
In the wake of the break-up, Emeli suffered with acne breakouts and her weight fluctuated, and she thinks they were physical manifestations of the emotional struggles she was going through.
When asked if those things were symptoms of her inner turmoil, she answered: "Definitely. I was just feeling lost. I was just all over the place, I guess. It was hard to focus. I wanted to try everything. I’d entered this new life, and, yes, I was alone, but I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted. But I lacked energy. And I wasn’t even trying to lose weight, I just got really thin.
"Looking back, Jesus, that was bad. Luckily, I had my family around me, and people who knew me from Scotland, who’d known me since before I was Emeli."
The 32-year-old pop star – whose real name is Adele Emily Sande – now believes she made the decision to tie the know with Adam because he had been her lover before she had achieved fame and success with her debut album ‘Our Version of Events’ and was a constant in her life.
She explained: "It was madness [in 2012]. It was literally: Olympics, wedding, fly to Montenegro, get married, fly back – and we had maybe a week’s honeymoon together. He was the person that had been there from the very beginning. And maybe I was just looking for, ‘OK, this is my guy. Whatever happens, no matter how crazy this gets, I’ve got someone.’ "
Emeli – who releases her third album ‘Real Life’ in September – still has a tattoo located below her left collarbone which reads "Volim te Adame", which is a tribute to her ex-husband which translates from Serbian as "I love you Adam".
Although the pair are no longer a couple, the musician – who is currently single – has no intention of having the inking erased from her body.
When asked if she’d have the design removed, she said: "No. I did love Adam, and still do. I actually bumped into him in Glasgow last month!"