Ed Sheeran Reveals Wife Was Diagnosed with Tumor While Pregnant

Ed Sheeran is pouring his heart out on his new album “Subtract.”

The album drops May 5, and marks the last of Ed’s mathematical album series. He recently revealed that after a decade of shaping the acoustic track list, the album changed direction after a series of heartbreaking and life-changing events in 2022.

Sheeran opened up about those difficult events in a diary entry written in February 2022 that was released alongside the album announcement. He shares that his wife Cherry Seeborn was diagnosed with a tumor while pregnant with their second child. At the same time, he lost a friend.

“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,” Ed explained. “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 went on, “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.”

Going into more detail, he continued, “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.”

Ed said he was “spiralling through fear, depression, and anxiety.”

The songwriter confessed, “I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air.”

Sheeran continued, “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.”

Alongside the announcement, he also unveiled the album cover as well as a pair of photographs by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz.