Ed Sheeran has disclosed that last year his wife of four years, Cherry Seaborn, was found to have a tumour during her pregnancy with their second child that could not be treated until after the child had been born.
It was the couple’s second daughter. The addition to their family in May 2022 joined sister Lyra Antarctica, the childhood sweethearts’ firstborn welcomed in August 2020.
The Suffolk singer-songwriter revealed how the discovery of the tumour, the passing of his close friend Jamal Edwards, and a High Court copyright dispute had him “spiralling through fear, depression and anxiety,” in an emotive Instagram post to promote his new album, Subtract.
“I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air,” the 32-year-old commented.
“As an artist I didn’t feel like I could credibly put a body of work into the world that didn’t accurately represent where I am and how I need to express myself at this point in my life.
“This album is purely that. It’s opening the trapdoor into my soul.
“For the first time I’m not trying to craft an album people will like, I’m merely putting something out that’s honest and true to where I am in my adult life.”
The events of 2022, he claimed, affected his “life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I regarded music and art,” despite the fact that he had been working on the new record for ten years.
“Writing songs is my therapy,” he added.
“I wrote without thought of what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever tumbled out.
“And in just over a week I replaced a decade’s worth of work with my deepest darkest thoughts.”
For the composition and production of his new album, Sheeran enlisted The National’s Aaron Dessner, who worked with Taylor Swift on her lockdown singles Folklore and Evermore.
The two started writing songs in February of last year, and over the course of a month in the studio, they produced more than 30 songs, 14 of which ended up on the finished album.
The outcome is according to his record label, Atlantic, as varying from “pared back, folk-leaning textures to bolder, full-band/orchestral arrangements”.
On May 5, Subtract will be released worldwide.
