Adele + her husband Simon Konecki have split, but are committed to co-parenting

Adele’s albums have soothed many hearts through hard times, and now she’s going through a big relationship transition of her own.

The singer is separating from her husband Simon Konecki, the father of her 6-year-old son, Angelo James.

“Adele and her partner have separated,” Adele’s people wrote in a statement to the Associated Press. “They are committed to raising their son together lovingly. As always they ask for privacy. There will be no further comment.”

Our hearts go out to Adele. Of course, she doesn’t owe anyone any further explanation or discussion of her separation, but by announcing it publicly, she is shining a light on a family dynamic that is so common but not talked about as much as it should be: Co-parenting.

Parenting with an ex is a reality for so many mothers. According to the Pew Research Center, “the likelihood of a child – even one born to two married parents – spending part of their childhood in an unmarried parent household is on the rise.”

Angelo James’ experience will be similar to many of his peers.

“Increases in divorce mean that more than one-in-five children born within a marriage will experience a parental breakup by age 9, as will more than half of children born within a cohabiting union,” Pew notes.

Adele and Konecki already know a thing or two about how co-parenting works, as Konecki has an older child from a previous relationship.

They can make this work because so many parents are making this work. The reality is, two parents can still be a family, and be a team for their child without being romantic partners.

Decades ago, co-parenting after a divorce wasn’t the norm, and a body of research (and the experience of a generation of kids) has changed the way parents do things today. Today, divorce isn’t about the end of a family. It’s about the evolution of one.

Research suggests joint physical custody is linked to better outcomes for kids than divorce arrangements that don’t support shared parenting and that divorced couples who have “ongoing personal and emotional involvement with their former spouse”(so, are friends, basically) are more likely to rate their co-parenting relationship positively.

Co-parenting is good for kids, and clearly, Adele and Konecki are committed to being a team for Angelo James.

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