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Ed Sheeran has revealed his wife Cherry Seaborn was diagnosed with a tumour while she was pregnant with their second child.
Sheeran and Seaborn, who tied the knot in 2019, welcomed their first child, a girl named Lyra in 2020, and announced the birth of their second baby in May 2022.
The singer doesn't often share insights to his family life with followers, but he opened up about some recent events as he took to Instagram to share the news of his new album, Subtract.
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Alongside an image of him hunched over a desk, Sheeran told fans that he had been working on Subtract for a decade when 'a series of events' changed his life at the start of 2022.
The events impacted his mental health and 'the way [he] viewed music and art', with Sheeran explaining: "Writing songs is my therapy. It helps me make sense of my feelings. 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."
The album came about after a tumultuous month, when Seaborn was pregnant with the couple's second child and 'got told she had a tumour'.
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Sheeran revealed they were told there was 'no route to treatment' until after the baby was born, and though the baby is now approaching their first birthday, he did not add an update on his wife's current condition.
Within the same month, the singer learned of the death of his 'best friend' Jamal Edwards, and was forced to go to court to defend his 'integrity and career as a songwriter'.
"I was spiralling through fear, depression and anxiety," he said. "I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air."
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Wanting to give fans an album that accurately represented 'where' he is and how he needed to 'express [himself] at this point' in life, Sheeran wrote Subtract.
"It’s opening the trapdoor into my soul," Sheeran explained. "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."
The album is set to be released on 5 May.
Emily Brown