Ed Sheeran gets emotional recalling his wife's cancer diagnosis: 'It was horrible'
When Ed Sheeran began dating his wife Cherry Seaborn in 2015, the global music icon found everything in his life becoming better—until she was diagnosed with cancer in 2022.
Seaborn was diagnosed with a tumor six months into her pregnancy with their second baby, Jupiter. Her husband first broke the news in a lengthy Instagram post about his upcoming album Subtract last March 1.
"Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumour, with no route to treatment until after the birth," Sheeran wrote.
The Perfect hitmaker admitted to "spiraling through fear, depression, and anxiety" as it came alongside another tragedy in his life: the sudden death of his best friend Jamal.
While Sheeran and Seaborn have since been keeping their personal affairs out of the limelight, the couple finally opened up about having to cope with her diagnosis in the singer's upcoming documentary series The Sum of it All.
According to a report by PEOPLE, Seabon revealed in the show's first episode that she agreed to appear in the docuseries thinking of the impression she would like to leave behind.
She explains, "I got diagnosed with cancer at the start of the year which was a massive s—ter," she says. "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?'"
The 30-year-old continues, "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,'" she adds.
Meanwhile, 32-year-old Sheeran can be seen being teary-eyed as he recalls this difficult phase in their lives and saying, "It was horrible," according to PEOPLE.
Later in the episode, the musician opens up about how much his relationship with his wife means to him.
"It's the most amazing thing in my life that nobody really knows about," he says. "Everything in my life got so much better when she got into it."
Being the multi-awarded singer-songwriter that he is, Sheeran instead turned his frustrations into motivation to write seven songs for Subtract. And he did that in a span of four hours.
Seaborn recounts, "We had the diagnosis of the tumor and the next day, Ed went down into the basement and wrote seven songs in four hours."
"Some people write a diary and get their emotions out through the pen and, for Ed, if something really intense happens, he’ll go and write a song," she adds.
Sheeran and Seaborn have been close friends since they were children studying at Thomas Mills High School in Framlingham, England. The pair reunited in 2015 through a mutual friend working on Sheeran's tour.
They got engaged during the holidays of 2017 and said their "I do's" in December 2018. Sheeran confirmed that they got married in July 2019. Their longtime love bloomed them two daughters: Lyra Antarctica, 2, and Jupiter, 1.
The singer-songwriter's docuseries Ed Sheeran: The Sum of it All will premiere on Disney+ on May 3. His latest album Subtract, meanwhile, is slated for release on May 5.
Watch the trailer of the docuseries below:
