{"id":29906,"date":"2023-03-01T15:49:57","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T15:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=29906"},"modified":"2023-03-01T15:49:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T15:49:59","slug":"ed-sheeran-says-wife-developed-tumour-in-pregnancy-as-he-announces-new-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/03\/01\/ed-sheeran-says-wife-developed-tumour-in-pregnancy-as-he-announces-new-album\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran says wife developed tumour in pregnancy, as he announces new album"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ed Sheeran says he “spiralled” into depression last year, after his wife was diagnosed with a tumour and his friend Jamal Edwards died unexpectedly at the age of 31.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The star’s childhood sweetheart, Cherry Seaborn, who he married in 2019, was told she had a tumour while pregnant with their second child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was “no route to treatment until after the birth”, he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, the star was in court every day facing a copyright trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The devastating impact of those events “changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music”, said the star in a handwritten note posted to social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, he scrapped “hundreds” of songs he’d written for his upcoming sixth album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheeran and Seaborn welcomed their second daughter last May. The singer did not provide an update on his wife’s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ed
Image caption, Sheeran and Seaborn married in 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sheeran was writing to fans to announce the release of – (Subtract), an Aaron Dessner-produced acoustic album that was written against “a backdrop of grief and hope”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album was long-planned as the conclusion to his “mathematical era”, which began with + (Plus) in 2011, and continued with x (Multiply), \u00f7 (Divide) and = (Equals).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the entire project was rewritten in a week-long outpouring of emotions, as the star was “spiralling through fear, depression and anxiety” last February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It came after Edwards – who gave Sheeran his first big break – suddenly died from a heart attack after taking cocaine and drinking alcohol, a coroner concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly afterwards, Sheeran faced a three-week copyright trial, over claims he had plagiarised his hit song Shape Of You.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he eventually won, the singer and his co-writer, Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid, said the case had put an “extraordinary strain” on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get through those experiences, Sheeran used songwriting to “make sense” of his feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air,” he recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ed
Image caption, Artwork for the album was shot by famed US photographer Annie Leibovitz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s opening the trapdoor into my soul.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album is due for release on 5 May, with Sheeran playing a handful of shows in London, Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester and Paris to debut the first single at the end of March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The release comes shortly after January’s one-off single F64, which was a visceral response to Jamal Edwards’ death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That song will not feature on the final tracklist, which was revealed on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Boat<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Salt Water<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Eyes Closed<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Life Goes On<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Dusty<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. End Of Youth<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Colourblind<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Curtains<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Borderline<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Spark<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. Vega<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  12. Sycamore<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  13. No Strings<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  14. The Hills of Aberfeldy<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Sheeran’s mathematical quintology has made him one of Britain’s biggest music stars, with songs like Shape Of You and Thinking Out Loud among the most-streamed songs of all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Subtract, which was originally planned as an acoustic album, will now range from “paired back, folk-leaning textures to bolder, full-band\/orchestral arrangements,” according to a press release from Sheeran’s record label, Atlantic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Unlike his previous albums, the artwork for Subtract does not focus on the title’s mathematical symbol, instead featuring a picture of a corroding heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The star also posted a cryptic video on Instagram, featuring his song titles scored into the shore of a windswept beach, intercut with footage of what appears to be a child’s birthday party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sheeran’s record was produced by Dessner, best known as the frontman of alternative rock band The National, after the two were introduced by mutual friend Taylor Swift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dessner previously collaborated with Swift on her Grammy Award-winning lockdown album Folklore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “This is last February’s diary entry and my way of making sense of it,” Sheeran concluded. “This is Subtract.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"2px<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Ed Sheeran says he “spiralled” into depression last year, after his wife was diagnosed with a tumour and his friend Jamal Edwards died unexpectedly at the age of 31. The star’s childhood sweetheart, Cherry Seaborn, who he married in 2019, was told she had a tumour while pregnant with their second child. There was “no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[9951,11974,6612,5304,6682,8713,5307,7960,9214,6613,10507,2808,7234,12326,5241,11364,2589,9026,8057,9127,6746,3270,6789,12634,8394,8235,3684,11252,9349,5913,5058,1993,11900,11973,1253,9325,2451,6431,6978,11259,6838,1708,5349,1217,8206,11581,6348,8033,8869,3954,10415,594,12347,10353,5784],"class_list":["post-29906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-age","tag-album","tag-alcohol","tag-attack","tag-birth","tag-birthday","tag-britain","tag-case","tag-child","tag-cocaine","tag-court","tag-daughter","tag-death","tag-decade","tag-died","tag-dublin","tag-ed-sheeran","tag-fans","tag-fear","tag-february","tag-glasgow","tag-grammy","tag-grief","tag-health","tag-instagram","tag-lockdown","tag-london","tag-manchester","tag-married","tag-mental-health","tag-music","tag-my-life","tag-new-album","tag-one","tag-paris","tag-pregnancy","tag-pregnant","tag-release","tag-rock","tag-shot","tag-singer","tag-snow","tag-social-media","tag-taylor-swift","tag-treatment","tag-trial","tag-us","tag-video","tag-water","tag-will","tag-work","tag-who","tag-writer","tag-x","tag-youth"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}