Sheeran ‘spiralling through fear’ over pregnant wife’s tumour

ED SHEERAN “spiralled through fear, depression and anxiety” last year after his pregnant wife was diagnosed with a tumour and a close friend died, the star has disclosed.

Cherry Seaborn, whom Sheeran married in 2019, was told by doctors she had a tumour while pregnant with their second child “with no route to treatment until after the birth”.

Jamal Edwards, the music entrepreneur who helped to launch Sheeran’s career, died in February aged 31.

Sheeran, 32, said he had felt as if he was “drowning” in a statement announcing the release of his new album. He did not give an update on the health of his wife, who gave birth to their second daughter in May.

In his statement announcing the album titled “–” (the mathematical symbol for subtraction), to be released on May 5, Sheeran said the songs had been influenced by the difficult events.

He said: “I had been working on Subtract for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album… with a clear vision of what I thought it should be. Then at the start of 2022, a series of events changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music and art. And in just over a week, I replaced a decade’s worth of work with my deepest, darkest thoughts.”

Sheeran said he had felt as if he was “drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air”.

Images by the US photographer Annie Leibovitz that were released with the announcement show him being washed away by waves and leaning over a writing desk at night.

Sheeran described the album as like “opening the trapdoor into my soul”, adding: “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. This is last February’s diary entry and my way of making sense of it.”