Ed Sheeran is giving fans a very emotional update on his personal life.
The 32-year-old “Shape Of You” singer-songwriter opened up in a post on social media about his wife Cheryl Seaborn as well as his late best friend Jamal Edwards. In the same post, he confirmed that he is releasing a new studio album titled Subtract.
Ed took to Instagram to write:
“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, saying about his upcoming album and scrapping what he had been working on:
“Writing songs is my therapy. It helps me make sense of my feelings. I wrote without thought of what he 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.”
Ed then went on to reveal that his wife Cherry was diagnosed with a tumor, also touched on the death of his best friend Jamal:
“Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumor, 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. I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air.”
He said this about making sense of what happened in his artistry:
“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.”
Subtract will be out on May 5.
