Fame hasn't changed me, insists Adele. Oh yes? What about the £16million in property, £100k car and £15k playhouse for her son!

She insists she hasn’t changed a bit — aside from swapping grocery shopping in Tesco for the pricier Waitrose. Worth £51million ($79million) and rising, singer Adele Adkins this week embarked on a round of publicity for her forthcoming album, 25, by talking about fame and how she’s still the same working-class girl who was raised by a single mum in Tottenham, North London.

She told Radio One’s Nick Grimshaw: ‘I like the way I have lived my life always, so that’s why I’ll carry on living it like that. No one else in my life is famous, so they’d think I’m being an idiot if I was ever to try to get carried away with myself.’

She added: ‘I shop at Waitrose these days. I know, I’ve moved up in the world. I still love you, Tesco, but Waitrose. That’s probably the biggest change, honestly. That’s about it, really. I got a plasma [television ]. I used to have that big thick one up until recently.’

But is everything really so unaltered? For upon closer inspection, it turns out Adele’s life today is about as exclusive and monied as it gets.

Since the global success of the album 21, she has spent a cool £16million ($25m) on property. She lives a life of untrammelled luxury which features a permanent security presence, bespoke gold jewellery gifts from her Old Etonian boyfriend and winter coats from Stella McCartney. Her hair is cut by the same Mayfair crimper who attends to David Cameron. Her first car — she recently passed her driving test — is a £100,000 (155k) Porsche with a bespoke interior.

None of this, however, features in her publicity material. For, as the singer told the magazine i-D this week, it is vital for her to still seem to be the ‘normal’ person whose songs so appealed to millions. She said: ‘I want to have a real life so I can write records. No one wants to listen to a record from someone that’s lost touch with reality. So I live a low-key life for my fans.’

Appealingly humble? Or rather disingenuous? Let’s look at the evidence.

HIGH-CLASS HOMES

Adele bought a mews house in Kensington, West London, for £5.65 million in 2012. Last year she bought the house next door to it for £5.38 million with plans to knock the two through in order to give her extra space.

It is where she spends most of her time, with son Angelo, who turned three last week, and her beloved miniature dachshund, Louie.

She has been spotted at the Chelsea Harbour Design Centre looking at high-end designer sofas and furnishings — no cheapies from Ikea for her.

The house includes a display cabinet in which her Oscar for the song Skyfall is housed, along with the sparkly Burberry dress and Louboutin silver platform pumps which she wore for her performance. Sweetly, she also stores a Best Mum award in there, too. ‘My boyfriend got me that,’ she said.

Her property empire includes a seaside house in Hove which she bought in March 2012 — it’s the part of the world where her boyfriend, Simon Konecki, hails from and where his bottled water company, Life water, is based. Within a year, I am told, she bought the neighbouring house — costing more than £5million.

And that doesn’t include the bill for a revamp of the property. Plans were drawn up by Conran & Partners — the firm headed by Sir Terence Conran — and the budget was said to be over £500,000. Adele is also said to have bought a house in London for her mother. Her total spend on property is over £16 million.

Adele’s boyfriend is the Eton-educated son of a banker

ETON BOYFRIEND 

Adele’s boyfriend is the Eton-educated son of a banker, who had his birth announced in The Times. Simon Konecki worked as a trader in a merchant bank before founding Life, an eco-friendly bottled water company. He spent the first ten years of his life in New York, where his father was working as a banker. They returned to the UK and lived in Brighton. All the Konecki children attended public schools.

One boy in his year at Eton, where fees are £30,000 a year, said: ‘He had a terrible Eighties mullet and awful acne.’ He is remembered for smoking Marlboro Lights cigarettes behind the rackets courts.

He left Eton at 14 and at 17 had started his first job, as a trainee foreign exchange broker. Stints at Lehman Brothers and investment holding company EBS followed.

By 2004 he had married fashion stylist Clary Fisher. During this period, Simon made friends with EastEnders actor Sid Owen and playboy heir Lucas White. It was a fast crowd — Tara Palmer-Tomkinson was also on the fringes of the scene.

In 2005, disillusioned with banking, he left the City behind. He and Clary moved to Brighton, where they had daughter Georgie, and he set up Life, selling English mineral water.

It has a partnership with charity drop4drop which provides clean drinking water in the developing world.

Lucas White and Ronnie Wood’s son, Jamie, were both early investors and Simon, 41, sought celebrity endorsements, making friends with Stephen Fry. But as Simon devoted more time to business, his marriage foundered. By 2009 it was over. He met Adele in late 2011; the couple were introduced by a mutual friend, the musician Ed Sheeran.

£3,000 BABY GIFT 

Following the birth of baby Angelo in October 2012, Konecki spent £3,000 on a gold Buddha pendant for Adele from aristocratic sculptor and jeweller Lady Marina Cowdray.

He picked up an identical token in silver on a leather strap for himself, to match. Lady Marina told me: ‘He wanted to get a matching one for himself, which was sweet.’

ADELE HAS LUXURY ON WHEELS

As a wealthy woman living on the fringes of Chelsea, what on earth would Adele drive if not a Chelsea tractor?

Adele passed her driving test in October 2013 and within weeks she visited the Porsche Centre in Chiswick, West London, to order a Porsche Cayenne 4x4.

The £100,000 car is black with leather interior and personalised stitching. Within six months she bought a black Range Rover and was seen out in this car, worth around £80,000, this week.

The £100,000 car is black with leather interior and personalised stitching

THE ULTIMATE DEN 

Angelo may be an only child — Adele says she ‘doesn’t know’ about having another — but he does not want for luxury. She reportedly spent £15,000 on a playhouse, complete with turrets, electricity and a balcony.

She told i-D magazine: ‘I had a great childhood. I was very loved, which I realise now is so important, being a mum. The way I was brought up, the morals are the same, but the environment is very different to how I’m raising my child. It was fun and it’s worlds away from what I do now and I’m very conscious of that.’

£70,000 BODYGUARD

Adele has a security team who can sometimes be seen loading her bags into her car after shopping trips. Two burly men accompany her everywhere.This year, she lured Lady Gaga’s bodyguard Pete van der Veen into her service. The cost is confidential, but will total £70,000 a year.

HAIR-RAISING FEES

Forget the days of the home-cut fringe, Adele now has her hair done by Lino Carbosiero, MBE — the Daniel Galvin stalwart who also looks after David Cameron, Hillary Clinton and Amanda Holden.

He took 6in off the length last year after she got ‘bored’ with it. Carbosiero told Heat magazine: ‘We came up with the graduated bob, with blonde highlights at the front. She has the most amazing hair.’

If she gets her hair cut every six weeks, that totals £1,300 a year.

THE LOPEZ LOOK

Adele is looked after by LA-based stylist Gaelle Paul. Ms Paul, from London, has worked with actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez.

She said last year: ‘For events, I have to figure out how many outfits she’ll need, then I reach out to designers with a brief, show Adele and see what she thinks. She’ll get the final say. Everything she wears in public has been designed specifically for her. Designers are begging to dress her.’

This costs at least £20,000 a year.

Adele is looked after by LA-based stylist Gaelle Paul. Ms Paul, from London, has worked with actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez

CELEBRITY FOCUS WITH ALAN CARR

As far as the A-List London merry-go-round is concerned — launches, premieres, concerts — you simply won’t see Adele, 27, anywhere on the radar.

Occasionally she goes out — she’s been spotted at the Chiltern Firehouse restaurant in Marylebone with chat show host Alan Carr. 

On another occasion she was there, she was said to have had a blazing row with Simon Konecki and left the eaterie alone. She celebrated her last birthday at a Japanese restaurant in Chelsea with Carr and the pop star known as Example.

Alan Carr at Adele's birthday party in Chelsea last year

£10,000 ON BEAUTY

She relies upon the services of hair and make-up artist Michael Ashton for professional engagements. He also looks after Caroline Flack and Jade Jagger and has been working with her for years. The cost can quite easily top £10,000 a year.

LOUBOUTIN ADDICT 

Adele loves to wear black — famed for its slimming properties. She loves Converse sweatpants and Nike trainers. Her accessories are rather more A-list — her favourite sunglasses are by Linda Farrow and cost £456.

She is also fond of Louboutin shoes, at around £500 a pair. Her favourite handbag is a Burberry Prorsum Knight studded handbag, which costs £1,800. She’s also been seen carrying a £2,100 Chanel padded tote.

HEALTH KICK

Adele has been using the services of food company Pure Package in her attempt to lose weight. It provides calorie-controlled meals delivered to the doorsteps of the rich and famous at a cost of thousands a year.

She has lost a lot of weight since the success of her album 21 in 2011, but her figure remains a touchy topic. Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld appalled many when he said: ‘The thing at the moment is Adele. She is a little too fat, but she has a beautiful face and a divine voice.’

She said: ‘I’ve never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I’m very proud of that.’

She has quit smoking, with the help of celebrity hypnotherapist Susan Hepburn, costing £295 a time.