It’s time to slow down

ED: FAMILY COMES FIRST NOW

ED Sheeran is preparing to slow down his music career to focus on his wife and family.

The star bares his soul on new LP Subtract, out tomorrow, driven by personal tragedy and his wife Cherry’s cancer battle.

It’s made Ed reflect on what is important: “My and Cherry’s relationship is the most amazing thing in my life that no-one really knows about.

“Everything in life sort of got so much better when she got into it.”

Ed documents the tumultuous time in new Disney+ series The Sum

Of It All, but the real star is Cherry, who said: “He wants to show people, ‘I’m not just this music machine robot. I’m a father, son, a friend a husband.’”

In it Ed prepares for the inevitable time when he’s longer the nation’s darling: “Careers naturally plateau I’ve been coming to terms with that, by the time (daughters) Lyra and Jupes are in school the world will naturally have said, ‘We’re good.’ I don’t think anyone copes with that well.”

What made Ed change was Cherry facing cancer while pregnant: “The doctor was basically like, ‘This is really bad but we’re not gonna have results back for like a month.’ There were not treatment plans that worked with the pregnancy.”

Cherry’s results eventually came back more positive, but the next day they got news that Ed’s friend Jamal Edwards had died.

Tearful Ed clearly struggles in the doc, channelling his pain into emotional new music. Cherry said: “He’s now performing work for the first time in his deepest darkest fears and that’s a difficult thing to perform.

“I’ve never seen him cry on stage, he never really cries in general.”

But it’s Ed’s love for Cherry that shines through the series as they recall embarrassing first dates, his proposal and parenthood.

Ed said: “I find like when you became parents you forget you were lovers in a relationship before, had fun and just fancying each other... it’s important reminding each other you fancy each other.”

•The Sum Of It All is on Disney+