Adele's father too upset to watch her sing

Adele's "rotten" father has never seen her perform.

The 'Someone Like You' hitmaker's dad, Mark Evans, regrets becoming estranged from his daughter after he started abusing alcohol ten years ago, and admits he still can't bear to see her perform on stage.

Mark, who said he began drinking heavily after the death of his own father, told The Sun newspaper: "I was a rotten father at a time when she really needed me. I was putting away two litres of vodka and seven or eight pints of Stella every day.

"I've never been to one of her shows or even listened to her music very much. I know that all those memories would come flooding back because I'd be thinking how proud Dad would be of his granddaughter. I can't deal with loss.

"I've heard her songs when they've come on the radio and I watched some of her performance at the BRITs.

"But even then I had to walk out of the room halfway through. I couldn't bear the memories it brought up."

Adele, now 22, was raised in London by her mother, and has previously said she cut off contact with her father when she was 11 and claimed to have only seen him once since - though she admitted she would like to build a relationship with him now.

She said: "I last saw him at my grandma's funeral. I think I was about 15. But I'd cut off contact with him when I was 10 or 11. I didn't know what a dad was supposed to do because I never had one. I'm sure I will see him again, because now I think we can be friends."

However, Mark, 47, insists he has been reunited with his daughter and they now get on "fantastically", but she claims not to have met him to spare him from talking about his past.

Recalling their first meeting after he gave up drinking, he said: "I started to tell her what had happened to me and she gave me this huge, kind smile and put her arms round me. 'It's OK, Dad. I understand. I forgive you', she said.

"We get on fantastically now so who knows, one of these days I might even find the courage to see one of her shows."