Adele dec lared she was "ready for a drink" while picking up a coveted award from Dame Helen Mirren

She also said while picking up the trophy - handed out for her career achievements and using her platform to inspire others - from fellow recipient Dame Helen, 78, at The Hollywood Reporter's annual event she wanted to clear some of the papers on the podium so she did not "get confused" while reading her own speech.

Adele, who has son Angelo, 10, with her 49-year-old former husband Simon Konecki, said: "I am jet-lagged as anything... it is definitely night-time to me, ready for a drink."

She later spoke about becoming pregnant at the height of her fame, adding: "(I'll) call it pandemonium because that's how it felt to me. Overnight it was like I was famous, it was the strangest, most surreal experience of my life still to this day.

"I fell pregnant, and to many that would be, and it was, considered career suicide.

"However, always one to go against the grain, it was there and then that I chose to reject scarcity of success and the idea you have to be constantly relevant to be successful and that perhaps, just maybe, I could be a hit both on and off the stage and you never guess what... got away with it."

Presenting the award, Dame Helen spoke about the first time she heard Adele speak, revealing: "I will never forget the first time I heard her speak on the radio, and I thought, 'Oh my god not only is she a goddess, but she's an ordinary Londoner just like me'."

On the pink carpet at the event, the actress added about handing Adele her gong: "I feel honoured to be honouring her.

"She is a fellow Londoner, she is a fellow artist, but on such a scale that is absolutely mind-blowing.

"I think she is an incredible artist, one that we will all be very proud of, Americans and British people, but very specifically Londoners - so I am presenting it to her as a fellow Londoner tonight.

"It is not only that glorious, extraordinary voice for the century but also her work as a songwriter and of course then, after all of her work as an artist, it is her work as a philanthropist that we are recognising tonight, so all of those elements."

Among the stars at the gala were Will Ferrell, Dua Lipa, Lily Gladstone, Diane Warren, Camila Cabello, Ariana DeBose and Kerry Washington - who received the Equity in Entertainment Award.