It can't be easy for celebs when their fame-hungry mom or dad blabs to the gossip magazines about the family's private pains. Some things are just not our business to know. But I'll be honest: when I read about celebrities who had substance abusers in their lives growing up, I feel a special kinship for them and almost proud that they still grew up to become successful. Having lived with loved ones with alcoholism and drug addiction, I am sadly all too familiar with this profoundly difficult pain.

That's why I read with keen interest when Mark Evans, father of Adele — one of my favorite singers — opened up to the UK's Sun newspaper about his alcoholism. Mark split up from Adele's mother when Adele was only three and although he was involved in her life, he confessed that in a bout of depression, he had a three-year-long drinking binge in which he cut his child out of his life:

""I was putting away two litres of vodka and seven or eight pints of Stella every day. I drank like that for three years. God only knows how I survived it. I was deeply ashamed of what I'd become and I knew the kindest thing I could do for Adele was to make sure she never saw me in that state. ... I hit the bottle so hard that I am pretty much oblivious to anything that happened to me for three years. I was way, way below rock bottom by then. ... I was in the darkest place you can imagine. I saw no way out. I didn't really care whether I lived or died."

These days, Mark Evans is reflective about his depression and drinking and its impact on his daughter, who he has a relationship with again:

"All I could do was drink and I'm so, so ashamed of myself for that. I was in so much grief that I couldn't see past myself and how I was feeling. I was not there for my daughter when I should have been and I have regretted that every second of every day to this moment now. It tears me up inside."

While Adele may not be too pleased her dad opened up to a tawdry paper like the Sun, I actually appreciate her dad speaking up and it makes me feel like I could see whole new elements to her music now that I know she grew up with an alcoholic dad. [The Sun UK]

Sadly, there are many, many other celebs with alcoholic or drug addict parents who can relate...