Adele said in an interview that this song came to fruition after she was explaining her relationship with this guy by saying "He's always fucking turning the tables on me," and Ryan Tedder (who helped her write the song,) said that he really liked the phrase (turning tables.)
So it's not about a physically abusive relationship, the guy wasn't literally turning tables over, but he was always oscillating violently between moods, and the relationship was really just unstable.
Adele said in an interview that this song came to fruition after she was explaining her relationship with this guy by saying "He's always fucking turning the tables on me," and Ryan Tedder (who helped her write the song,) said that he really liked the phrase (turning tables.)
So it's not about a physically abusive relationship, the guy wasn't literally turning tables over, but he was always oscillating violently between moods, and the relationship was really just unstable.