Ed Sheeran Announces New Album Release Date, Reveals Wife’s Health Struggles

Greg Evans
·3-min read

Ed Sheeran announced today that his fifth studio album, pronounced Subtract but styled as “-”, will be released on May 5.

In a Twitter post and statement today, Sheeran also revealed that his wife Cherry Seaborn was diagnosed with a tumor last year when she was pregnant with the couple’s second child. He said the tumor could not be treated until after the child was born; the couple’s daughter was born last May, and Sheeran did not provide his wife’s current health status.

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The statement was posted on Twitter today in the form of a diary entry photographed by Annie Liebowitz. (See it below.)

Sheeran writes that the Subtract album has been in the works for a decade, as he was “trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album.”

“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 writes, adding, “Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumour, 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.”

The new album is expected to conclude what has been referred to as Sheeran’s “mathematical” series, which launched in 2011 with the album “+” (pronounced Plus). Subtract is produced and written by Sheeran with The Nartional’s Aaron Dessner. Sheeran’s most recent album was F64, released in January and dedicated to the singer-songwriter’s late friend Jamal Edwards.

Here is the full statement released by Sheeran today:

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. 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.

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.

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