Adele has bizarre run-in with Scientology chiefs who try to buy her stunning mansion

Members of the mysterious religious group, which counts Tom Cruise and John Travolta among its devotees, tried to snap up Adele's mansion to expand their Sussex foothold

Never mind Chasing Pavements, Adele had a run-in with secretive Scientologists who were chasing… her house.

Members of the mysterious religious group, which counts Tom Cruise and John Travolta among its devotees, tried to snap up her mansion to expand their Sussex foothold. But comic Alan Carr reveals his superstar pal brushed off offers from them for her country bolthole.

He says: “ Adele has a secret house in East Grinstead and the Scientologists tried to buy it off her.” He explains that the group were keen to acquire the Hello singer’s sprawling estate to add to their nearby HQ in the sleepy corner of the West Sussex countryside.

The 18th century Saint Hill Manor has been in the group’s ownership since 1959, when sci-fi writer L Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology, set up home there. It was the religion’s worldwide HQ until 1967.

Tom Cruise has visited several times and is even said to have chosen a wing of the mansion as his lockdown sanctuary during the pandemic. John Travolta hit the headlines in 2011 when he tried – unsuccessfully – to book a table for his entourage at the local branch of KFC.

The area has even attracted attention for reported UFO sightings. In 2013, local paper The Argus reported that three pilots saw “two saucer shaped silver discs” hovering near Saint Hill – apparently unconnected to nearby Gatwick Airport, where the pilots were coming in to land. Adele first upped sticks to East Grinstead after the money came rolling in from her second album, 21. Then, in 2017, she and partner Simon Konecki bought an eight-bedroom country manor there.

Set in 48 acres of land, with a swimming pool and its own helicopter pad, it gave the couple and their son Angelo, then five years old, plenty of privacy as Adele’s third album, 25, stormed the charts. The singer reportedly lived there until 2019, when she sold the property for £3million after her divorce from Konecki.

Adele is now engaged to sports agent Rich Paul. Speaking on his Life’s A Beach podcast, Alan revealed how, after selling up, his pal had stuck in the area with her “secret house”.

Adele is not the only celebrity to be attracted to the market town, described as Britain’s strangest place to live – and the real-life version of the quirky Twin Peaks of TV fame. Grade I listed estate Hammerwood Park was once owned by Led Zep­­pelin, while singer and presenter Peter Andre lives with his family in a mansion bought from Tom Cruise.

Must be something in the water…