By Arwad Khalifeh
Could British superstar Adele be from our part of the world? According to a musician from Bodrum, Turkey, that may well be the case.
Mehmet Asar, 52, claims he is the biological father of the "Million Years Ago" singer, according to local Turkish website Daily Sabah.
In fact, Asar is so confident that Adele is his daughter, that he's invited her and her mother, Penny Adkins, to his hometown, where he says he would be willing to take a DNA test to prove that he is telling the truth.
"Now I'm coming forward because I want Adele to learn the facts. I invite her and her mom to Bodrum. They can come and spend their vacation here and we can meet. I think I am Adele's father, I feel it. I can even carry out a DNA test if she wants too," Asar said.
When Asar met Penny
In 1987, Penny reportedly traveled to Bodrum, where she met Asar. He worked as a taxi driver at the time and drove Penny and her friends around the area during their holiday.
The pair grew very close to each other, with Asar even describing their fling as "love."
"I toured Bodrum coves and Pamukkale with Penny Adkins and her friends for two weeks. She introduced herself to me as a nurse. At the time, we liked each other. We were together for two weeks. Then she extended her vacation, returning to England a month later. She came to Bodrum again twice, staying for a month.
"When she was leaving, she wanted me to come with her. However, I told her that I wanted to live in Bodrum instead of England and she could stay here if she wanted to. She returned to England, we spoke on the telephone for a couple of times, but it was both hard and expensive to make international calls at the time. We lost touch afterwards. The time we had been together corresponds with the time Adele was born," Asar said.
Asar claimed that the young woman in the photo is Penny Adkins. (Daily Sabah)
Despite leaving Turkey, Penny never left Asar's heart.
Asar admits that he never got married after Penny because "I never forgot the time we spent together."
So did the 18-year-old multi-award-winning diva inherit her musical talent - and apparently certain gestures - from her Turkish papa?
"When I looked through Adele's moves, when she raised her right hand during concerts, I saw the third and fourth fingers of her right hand are adjacent... I became even more surprised because my right hand's third and fourth fingers are also adjacent when I raise it. In addition, the highlights she makes when she is singing are similar to mine, which could also be genetic," Asar said.
Or could Asar be another scheming fan trying to cash in on Adele's fame?
"I'm from Bodrum and I'm a well-endowed man. I just want my daughter to know the facts," he said.
In an interview with Dutch TV (December 2015), Adele revealed that she is from Turkish, Spanish and English descent, without elaborating further.
Now we need answers from her mother. Anything you'd like to get off your chest, Penny?
