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Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Lifestyle
Maisie Bovingdon

Ed Sheeran opens up about wife Cherry's cancer diagnosis

Ed Sheeran and Cherry Seaborn

Ed Sheeran likes to maintain a private personal life, and we don't blame him. 

The singer and songwriter came off of social media when he previously took a career hiatus to go travelling. 

Even when he does post on social media, he rarely divulges too much about his relationship, parenthood, and all round personal life.  Until now. 

The 32-year-old award winning artist is set to release a four-part docuseries on Disney+, titled Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All, which is a nod to his album titles, to open up about his wife Cherry Seaborn's cancer diagnosis. 

It was reported Cherry was diagnosed with a tumour during her pregnancy with the couple's second child, but she reportedly had to wait until after birth to treat it. 

In the upcoming series, Ed and Cherry, discuss the diagnosis and how they are coping in the emotional show. 

Speaking about why she decided to partake in the series in a sneak preview of the first episode, which has been titled Love, Cherry said: "I got diagnosed with cancer at the start of the year which was a massive s***ter. 

"It made me massively reflect on our mortality. I would never agree to do anything like this but it made me think, 'Oh if I died, what's people's perception of me? What do you leave behind?'"

"For Ed, the whole point is he wants to say to people, 'I'm not just this music machine. I'm not just this robot that tries to get No. 1. I'm a father, I'm a son, I'm a friend.' It wasn't until this year when I was like, 'I might die.'"

Ed described the moment he found out about Cherry's news as "horrible."

To cope with the terrifying news, the Shape of You hitmaker reportedly penned numerous songs. 

Cherry - who has daughters Lyra and Jupiter with Ed - continued: "When something really intense happens to him, he writes a song."

Elsewhere in the episode, which will air on Wednesday 3 May, Ed praised Cherry for changing his life for the better. 

He said: "It's the most amazing thing in my life that nobody really knows about. Everything in my life got so much better when she got into it."

On the release of his album Subtract, which is written as the symbol '-' , Ed revealed it was created during a difficult time in his life. 

He previously said: "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.

"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.

"Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumour, with no route to treatment until after the birth.

"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."

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