Ed Sheeran says wife developed tumour in pregnancy

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 route to treatment until after the birth", he explained.

At the time, the star was in court every day facing a copyright trial.

The devastating impact of those events "changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music", said the star.

As a result, he scrapped "hundreds" of songs he'd written for his upcoming sixth album.

Titled - (Subtract), the record was long-planned as the coda to his "mathematical era", which began with + (Plus) in 2011, and continued with x (Multiply), ÷ (Divide) and = (Equals).

Suffering from "fear, depression and anxiety", the star rewrote the entire album in a little more than a week.

"I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air," said the star in a statement announcing the record.

"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.

"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.

"It's opening the trapdoor into my soul."

The album is due for release on 5 May, and follows the one-off single F64, released in January, which was a visceral response to Jamal Edward's death.

That song will not feature on the final tracklist, which was revealed on Wednesday morning.

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.

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.