Was Adele’s Ex-Boyfriend Who Inspired ’21′ Outed?

The bazillion people who bought (and related to the tales of heartache encased within) Adele‘s best-selling ’21′ have wondered, at least once or twice, who is the man who broke her heart, inspiring her masterpiece. A lot of pain went into crafting these songs and while the singer herself has said she has made peace with her heartbreaker, curiosity still abounds. Still wanna know who he is? Well, a taboid may have outed his identity.

According to Heat (via Digital Spy), his name is Alex Sturrock and he’s a fashion photographer who wanted to keep his relationship with the singer on the DL, which upset her mightily and eventually led to the breakdown of their coupledom. They were an item from summer 2008 through spring 2009.

A source said, “It was an intense period for them. They met through mutual friends and hit it off straight away. He shot her a few times and that was just it. They spent all their time together — and when they weren’t together they would ring each other constantly.”

The source also said that the couple were super close. “Adele relied on him a lot, he was her best mate as well as her boyfriend and he was very protective of her. He’d say no one knew her like he did,” the information spiller said.

Protective or not, he wasn’t into “terms” or “labels.” Things went south when Sturrock refused to call her his girlfriend. “Adele was pretty hurt by that, but Alex didn’t want to label what they had,” the insider shared.

Well, now he is immortalized in an album that has sold 18 million copies worldwide since 2011! Talk about a silver lining to that cloud.