She may be famous for hits about her painful past relationships, but Adele has admitted she would be "mortified" if one of her ex-boyfriends wrote a song about her.

The Grammy Award-winning British singer told NBC's Matt Lauer in an interview for the Today Show she wished she had kept more things to herself instead of pouring her heart out in her chart-topping albums 19 and 21.

Asked how she would feel if a former lover wrote a song about their time together, she said, "I'd be mortified. But also if they wrote songs about me, they'd be: ‘This song's about Adele’.

"I've never given any names ever, but everyone's going to know this song's about me. No-one actually knows who my songs are about."

"I do wish I'd kept a lot of things to myself, but I never knew the album was going to be so big. I will be more wary when I go into things now."

Despite enjoying huge success in both the UK and the US, Adele says she is uncomfortable with the idea of being a celebrity. "I just want to make music, I don't want people to talk about me. All I've ever wanted to do was sing."

Adele also revealed in the interview that Sir Elton John had called her ahead of her Grammy performance – the first time she sang in public after her vocal cord surgery. But the down-to-earth singer thought the pop legend was a prank caller and passed the phone to a friend.

"I had no idea who it was and he just started chatting away to me and I passed the phone over to a friend and I was like 'Yeah, it's Elton'," she said, laughing. "It still cracks me up. It made me think, 'My God, it's another level now'."