No one could have predicted how fast Adele would skyrocket into fame. As a small town girl with a 20-year-old mother, she didn’t have the connections or money most celebrities have to reach stardom. What she had instead was a hypnotizing voice and the gift to write songs everyone with a broken heart could relate to. She went from playing pubs to playing stadiums shortly after the boss of XL Recordings heard her demo on MySpace, and since then, the music world hasn’t been able to get enough of Adele. Her signature all-black ensembles were on the cover of every magazine, and "Someone Like You" was the number-one-played song on the radio for five consecutive weeks. As she prepared for her first tour, it seemed like Adele was on the way to becoming one of the greatest singers of all time.

But in early 2012, Adele disappeared from the public eye. While her songs still topped the charts, Adele herself was nowhere to be seen. She co-wrote and sung the James Bond theme song "Skyfall," but that was the only new music she produced. For three years, people were murmuring that Adele had faded from greatness.

The doubting Thomas' were silenced when Adele belted her way back to the charts with her newest album. The album, "25," is the fastest-selling in US history. "25" is stuffed with ballads that capture the classic, haunting beauty of Adele’s first album ("Hello") and her ventures into new genres, such as pop and country ("Send My Love"). Each song has enough quotable lyrics and heartponding instrumentals to silence even the harshest of critics.

Although she’s risen back to superstar status, fans and interviewers have been pestering the star for details about her three-year hiatus. At first, the usually private star brushed off questions about her time away from the public eye, but began to open up in more recent interviews about why she took time off.

After a February concert where Adele said her voice sounded like "someone had pulled a curtain over it," she was diagnosed with acute laryngitis. She rested and tried to tour again, but when her voice gave out again at her best friend’s wedding in October 2012, sources close to the star worried that her famous voice might be gone forever.

Adele feared her vocal chords could be ruined in surgery, as a botched operation ended Julie Andrew’s singing career in 1997. "I cried a lot," the star admitted in an interview with Vogue. Thankfully, Adele’s throat surgery went according to plan, and she was ready to belt again.

However, she couldn’t go back to hitting those legendary high notes right after leaving the hospital. After the surgery, the star was instructed not to sing for at least a month. This period of silence was also a period of self-discovery for Adele, the first time since her career took off that she had a chance to take a holiday, "It was brilliant," the star said of the hiatus, "I had so much time to kind of go over things and get over things."

Although the voice problems were not planned in advance, the hiatus was. In a 2012 interview, Adele said, "I am fucking off for four or five years. If I’m constantly working, my relationships fail. So now, I can have enough time to write a happy record. And be in love and be happy."

So instead of performing, Adele spent three years raising her son, Angelo, with Simon Konecki, her boyfriend of four years. Spending time with her son was the main focus for the singer, who revealed that her busy schedule had put a huge strain on being a mother. "You know what the killer thing is? When you get home and cannot wait to see them and they punish you...it is like the hardest thing ever." Her break from the spotlight gave her time to spend improving all the relationships in her life. The break paid off, as Adele disclosed in an interview with 60 Minutes Australia, "I know that sounds a bit like I’m trying to write a Hollywood movie, but it’s only because of him and our kids and stuff that I’m all right."

With her hiatus from stardom over, some are questioning if Adele’s relationship with Konecki will suffer from her skyrocketing career. But Adele believes that she’s found the one who will be by her side in stardom or simple times. "Being part of such an amazing relationship with someone that’s so there for me and so loyal and is really part of my core now,” Adele said. “That’s what made me write about everything I’ve ever done because I’ve got his love."