ED SHEERAN has told how his wife’s cancer scare inspired a fresh collection of songs that will feature on his upcoming album.
The singer shocked fans by revealing Cherry Seaborn, 30, discovered a tumour while pregnant with their second child Jupiter last May, adding she could only seek treatment after the baby was born.
But The Sun can reveal she is now on the mend and the pair are looking to put the traumatic experience behind them.
An insider said: “It’s been an incredibly tough time for Cherry and Ed. The tumour came as a huge shock, and the fact they couldn’t operate straight away was hugely concerning and scary.
“But after Jupiter arrived safely, Cherry has now received the treatment needed and is recovering well. They both hope it will be a much better 2023.”
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The release of Ed’s new album, Subtract, will be the conclusion to his “mathematical era” of records, which began with Plus in 2011 and continued with Multiply in 2014, Divide in 2017 and Equals in 2021.
The 32-year-old’s latest record, scheduled for release on May 5, is set to be his most personal following his wife’s health scare plus the shock death of close friend Jamal Edwards.
Music entrepreneur Jamal, who gave Ed his first big break, died last February from a heart attack aged 31 after taking cocaine.
While writing the album, Suffolk-born Ed also had to contend with a three-week copyright trial over claims he had plagiarised his hit song Shape Of You.
‘Darkest thoughts’
Although he eventually won, Ed and his co-writer, Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid, said the case had put an “extraordinary strain” on them.
Writing to fans yesterday on Instagram, Ed explained how he replaced a “decade’s worth of material” for Subtract with new songs he wrote as therapy for the most testing time of his life.
He said: “I had been working on Subtract for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs 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.
He continued: “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.
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“Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumour, with no route to treatment until after the birth.
“My best friend Jamal, a brother to me, died suddenly and I found myself standing in court defending my integrity and career as a songwriter.
“I was spiralling through fear, depression and anxiety.”
Explaining how the events of the last year impacted his mental health, he added: “I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air.
“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. This is last February’s diary entry and my way of making sense of it. This is Subtract.”
Ed started crafting the album with US songwriter Aaron Dessner, from The National, in February last year.
The pair, who were introduced by Ed’s pal Taylor Swift, wrote more than 30 songs during a month-long studio stint.
Fourteen made the final album, with many getting the big orchestral treatment.
Tracks titled Eyes Closed, Life Goes On and End Of Youth hint at his troubles, as well being a father of two.
Ed has also revealed he is going back on tour, announcing a run of arena shows in the UK and Europe.
He will play Manchester, London, Glasgow, Dublin and Paris over March and April this year.
Ed also toured last year, shortly after revealing he had become a father for the second time in May.
Both Ed and Cherry, who also share two-year-old Lyra, kept her pregnancy under wraps for the entire nine-months.
Revealing his baby news to his millions of social media followers, Ed shared a snap of Jupiter’s booties in an incubator.
He gushed: “I want to let you all know we’ve had another beautiful baby girl. We are both so in love with her, and over the moon to now be a family of four.”
Seven months earlier, Ed spoke exclusively to The Sun about his old health concerns, namely how his weight ballooned after finishing a world tour and how becoming a dad inspired him to overhaul his lifestyle.
He said: “Since becoming a dad I’ve become quite clean-living.
“But I think actually taking time off and not being on tour was the worst thing for my health because I would drink every single day. I stopped three months before Lyra was born because I was determined I was going to be the person to drive my wife to the hospital.
“I was 15-and-a-half stone at my peak and I think I’m ten-and-a-half now. I always knew I was big, but I knew why I was big too — I loved chicken wings, wine, beer, and I never exercised.
“I do still do all the things I love. I drank wine yesterday, I just didn’t drink two bottles of it. I don’t ever want to ‘quit’ anything either.”
He added: “It was when Cherry was pregnant the penny dropped. Lyra has been the biggest motivation in terms of detoxing my life.”
There is a high chance he will open the bubbly again though when the album sales figures come through.
