Adele’s ‘husband’ discovered his mother’s drug addiction at the age of four, learned to play dice at six, began peddling drugs as a young adolescent, and got a girl pregnant at fourteen, he has claimed.

Rich Paul, a sports agent, still has a fear of loud noises due to his childhood experiences on Cleveland’s dangerous streets.

However, he overcame his humble beginnings to become a multimillionaire and now lives with one of the world’s wealthiest singers.

Before Rich Paul became one of the most powerful sports agents representing NBA stars Anthony Davis (pictured) and LeBron James, he was making a living selling drugs in crime-ridden Cleveland

Paul, 41, wrote about his life in a new memoir, Lucky Me, which will be released next week.

Paul, pictured with former and current clients, Ben Simmons, Tristan Thompson, John Wall, and  LeBron James in 2018, is the founder of agency Klutch Sports

The 41-year-old has been dating singer Adele since 2021, however, the pair have recently fueled speculation that they secretly wed

‘I never had the chance to be a kid,’ he writes.

‘Crack was so powerful it decimated my mother’s love and expedited my adolescence. I had to grow from a cub to a young wolf right away.’

Paul grew up in the Glenville area on Cleveland’s East Side. His parents weren’t married and his father Rich Paul Sr. was the stabilizing influence as his mother – who he refers to as ‘Peaches’ was so drug-addled.

His father even once threatened to shoot him ‘like Marvin Gaye’s father did’ if he kept flunking at school after his GPA slipped to 1.4.

Lucky Me: A Memoir of Changing the Odds, released October 10, includes a foreword by LeBron James

Paul Sr said: ‘You keep this up I’m gonna take you out of this world, man. I’m telling you what’s going to happen. And I’m not gonna do a day in jail for it. You keep disrespecting me, I’m gonna show you what disrespect gets you. I’ll show you what disrespect is about,’ he reveals.

And the father’s threat worked, Paul says.

‘That moment changed the trajectory of my life,’ he writes.

His grade average soon went back up and never again went below 3.6.

Paul got another shock at the age of 14 when a girl told him midway through a basketball game that he got her friend pregnant.

While the girl had an abortion, it caused Paul to reflect on what he learned about 𝓈ℯ𝓍 growing up.

He writes: ‘I learned a lot of valuable things but healthy 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual habits were not one of them.

‘Almost everything my friends and I learned about 𝓈ℯ𝓍 was wrong. We thought that the more girls you had 𝓈ℯ𝓍 with, the more status you had…it was like a sickness.

‘We were buying them everything, giving them five and six hundred dollars a time. I spent so much at McDonald’s they might have run out of Chicken McNuggets.

‘All we were doing was setting up a toxic dynamic that for some of us has lasted a lifetime – we saw 𝓈ℯ𝓍 as transactional or a way to show off our status, instead of as an act rooted in love and commitment’.

Paul is now estimated to be worth $120million and is currently shacked up in a $58million mega mansion in Beverly Hills with Adele, who he started dating in 2021.

Their marital status is unclear although twice in recent weeks Adele – who admits she is ‘obsessed’ with him and says she is ‘as happy as she will ever be’ – has referred to herself as ‘wife’ and him as ‘husband’.

Paul admits that his tough upbringing left him with ‘constant suspicion and hyperawareness.’ And even in his new super-wealthy life he writes that he still flinches at loud noises after growing up listening to gunshots.

He describes being caught in the middle of a gunfight on the street and lying down to watch it unfold.

He writes: ‘I walk around Beverly Hills today and wherever I hear a loud sound or see someone running, my fight or flight reflexes kick in.

‘I never want to be caught in that no-man’s land’.

In his memoir Paul describes growing up in the 1980s in a one-bedroom apartment above his father’s confectionary store.

He frankly describes how the crack epidemic impacted his childhood, writing, ‘unless you lived through it, you really don’t know’.

‘When she was using,’ he writes, referring to his mother ‘we had to fend for ourselves. This is why I feel I never had the chance to be a kid,’ he writes.

Paul writes that he used to find bags filled with drug paraphernalia at his home and recalls ‘strange sounds’ coming from his mother’s room.

Paul, pictured in his youth, describes growing up in the 1980s in a one-bedroom apartment above his father’s confectionary store in Cleveland. He began playing basketball in middle school and soon found he had a natural talent for the sport

In social media posts promoting his book, Paul revealed close friend Jay-Z had a role in the project through his publisher Roc Lit

‘I had no idea my life was profoundly f*** up’, he writes.

Paul describes seeing his mother attacking other women who his father had over for 𝓈ℯ𝓍.

He recalled his mother ‘wreaking havoc on these women, dragging them outside and beating them down’, then she would go inside and tear apart the convenience store.

In 1990, when Paul was eight years old, his grandmother Ruth moved back to St Louis, taking him, and his sister Brandie and brother Meco with her.

He began to play basketball in middle school and found he had a natural s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 for it.

Meanwhile Meco began selling drugs, taking him down a path that would eventually lead to jail.

Peaches had moved out and was living on her own and seeing her home with no furniture left Paul with an ‘overwhelming surge of sadness’.

‘I never knew what would happen with her next’, he writes.

Paul began selling weed for $20 a bag and money began ‘piling up’ quickly, allowing him to buy flashy designer gear.

He had so much money that in seventh grade he spent $2,000 to customize his bicycle, spent $700 on a sweater and bought his first pistol.

But his father urged him to get a good education so he went to Benedictine, a private Roman Catholic high school.

His bond with LeBron James goes beyond agent and client and dates back to the two meeting by happenstance at Akron airport in 2001, the beginning of a friendship that would see them both rise to the pinnacle of their professions.

Paul’s successful career has placed him in the same circles as a NBA legends including the late Kobe Bryant and other celebrities

He is pictured left with comedian Kevin Hart and right with actor Denzel Washington at a basketball game.