Adele has openly discussed the genesis of it saying, "Well, I wrote that song because I was exhausted from being such a bitch, with 'Rolling in the Deep' or 'Rumour Has It' ... I was really emotionally drained from the way I was portraying him, because even though I'm very bitter and regret some parts of it, he's still the most important person that's ever been in my life, and 'Someone Like You,' I had to write it to feel OK with myself and OK with the two years I spent with him. And when I did it, I felt so freed."[4]
Adele had said that it was written on her acoustic guitar, quickly, in the wake of the break-up of her 18 month relationship with the 30-year old man she thought she would marry. A few months after their split, he had gotten engaged to someone else. "We were so intense I thought we wouldn't work. But that was something he never wanted ...So when I found out he does want that with someone else, it was just the horrible-est feeling ever. But after I wrote it, I felt more at peace. It set me free ... I didn't think it would resonate ... with the world! I'm never gonna write a song like that again. I think that's the song I'll be known for."[5] She also said that "I wrote that song on the end of my bed. I had a cold. I was waiting for my bath to run. I'd found out that he'd got engaged to someone else."[6]
I found this on Wikipedia:
Adele has openly discussed the genesis of it saying, "Well, I wrote that song because I was exhausted from being such a bitch, with 'Rolling in the Deep' or 'Rumour Has It' ... I was really emotionally drained from the way I was portraying him, because even though I'm very bitter and regret some parts of it, he's still the most important person that's ever been in my life, and 'Someone Like You,' I had to write it to feel OK with myself and OK with the two years I spent with him. And when I did it, I felt so freed."[4] Adele had said that it was written on her acoustic guitar, quickly, in the wake of the break-up of her 18 month relationship with the 30-year old man she thought she would marry. A few months after their split, he had gotten engaged to someone else. "We were so intense I thought we wouldn't work. But that was something he never wanted ...So when I found out he does want that with someone else, it was just the horrible-est feeling ever. But after I wrote it, I felt more at peace. It set me free ... I didn't think it would resonate ... with the world! I'm never gonna write a song like that again. I think that's the song I'll be known for."[5] She also said that "I wrote that song on the end of my bed. I had a cold. I was waiting for my bath to run. I'd found out that he'd got engaged to someone else."[6]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Someone_LikeYou(Adele_song)#cite_note-Peterson2-5