In this week's episode of HELLO!'s Second Act podcast, host Ateh Jewel meets author Adele Parks.
On the publication week of her 25th novel, Our Beautiful Mess, Adele Parks, who has sold more than six million books and received an MBE for services to literature, opens up about the plot twists that have shaped her own life on the Second Act podcast.
The juggle
Shortly after the huge success of her debut novel, Playing Away, in 2000, Adele found herself juggling her newly found career alongside her 10-month-old son Conrad after splitting from her husband.
Managing a civilised divorce was, she says, "the most important thing I've ever done" and taught her a valuable life lesson. "If you can get through something awful and still maintain who you are and you haven't been changed for the worse for it, then you're okay in life, aren't you?"
Role reversal
Then came along her second husband Jim; a man happy to change nappies, take her surname when they married and who quit his successful international marketing job in order to support his wife and her son.
The role reversal was something Adele was both relieved and terrified about in equal measure.
"Everyone goes, 'Oh, isn't that amazing? He supported you.' And I'm like, 'Yes. And it also meant financially I was supporting everybody at that point', which is a bit of a scare."
The secret to happiness
Their secret to a happy 21-year marriage she reveals is: "Sleeping naked [as well as] thinking what is best for us rather than what is best for me or for him. Being super competitive is what ends a lot of marriages. If you are on the same team and genuinely believe that in your heart, then it will always work."
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