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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cThat was probably one of the worst days,\u201d Sheeran said. \u201cThat was probably the worst week, because Jamal died that week as well, and then we went straight into the court case. And then Shane died \u2014 the first day of the court case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a sentence that feels like a punchline from a tragedy film, except that it\u2019s not a story he\u2019s telling for effect. Jamal Edwards, the visionary music entrepreneur who helped launch Sheeran\u2019s career, had passed away at 31 from a heart attack, leaving a hole in the community that felt heavier than the fame he\u2019d helped create. Around the same time, the high\u2011profile plagiarism case over \u201cShape of You\u201d was reaching its peak, pulling Sheeran into a courtroom battle that had been brewing for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And on top of it all, Cherry had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor while six months pregnant with their second daughter, Jupiter. The doctors\u2019 recommendation made the timeline feel like a slow, cruel joke: the surgery couldn\u2019t be done until after the baby was born. So they spent the final stretch of the pregnancy carrying the weight of love, hope, and fear all at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked how she\u2019s doing now, Sheeran\u2019s voice brightens, though it still holds the mark of that chapter. \u201cShe\u2019s fine, I mean, she had the operation,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was pregnant at the time, so that\u2019s why it was difficult. She had the operation to remove the tumor after the birth of our second child. Thankfully, touch wood, totally fine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a pause in that line that\u2019s as important as the words themselves\u2014less triumph, more relief. The kind of relief that doesn\u2019t make the fear evaporate, but finally lets you breathe again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Talking about that period, he doesn\u2019t sugarcoat it. \u201cIt was f**king scary,\u201d he said, echoing the same phrase he\u2019s used in past interviews. The fear of losing Cherry, the grief over Jamal, the stress of the court case, and the sudden death of cricket legend Shane Warne in the middle of the trial all collapsed into one \u201cworst week\u201d of his life, the kind of week that reshapes the way you see the world, even when the world still thinks you\u2019re at the top of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The couple\u2019s bond, though, has remained steady. Ed and Cherry met at school when they were just 11, reconnected as adults, and married in December 2018. They now share two daughters, Lyra and Jupiter, who\u2019ve become the heartbeat of his songs, part of the story that makes him keep writing even when the weight of the world feels unbearable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those same experiences\u2014Cherry\u2019s diagnosis, the loss of Jamal, the emotional toll of the trial\u2014also reshaped the course of his music. His 2023 album \u2013 (Subtract)<\/em> emerged from the wreckage of that time, a departure from the polished, chart\u2011ready arrangements of his earlier work and a move toward something quieter, rawer, and more honest. Where previous albums felt like they\u2019d been written for the stadium, much of Subtract<\/em> feels like it was written for the bedroom, the hospital, and the kitchen table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the months since that interview, Ed has continued to share glimpses of what it\u2019s like to live on the other side of that \u201cworst week.\u201d Cherry is now on the other side of her cancer journey, and the family has found a new kind of routine: more private, more intentional, and more focused on the moments that matter. For fans, the songs that came out of that period\u2014some of the most emotionally direct of his career\u2014have become the soundtrack to their own grief, hope, and healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s perhaps the quiet miracle in all of it: the same man who wrote \u201cThinking Out Loud\u201d for his wedding has learned to write songs that hold space for the questions he can\u2019t answer. The album, the interviews, the late\u2011night podcast reveals\u2014they\u2019re not just about pain, they\u2019re about how love, art, and time can slowly turn the worst days into the stuff of songs that will outlive the headlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sign up for our showbiz newsletter, and you\u2019ll stay updated on Ed Sheeran\u2019s journey and more heartfelt stories from the artists who remind us that even the biggest pop stars are still just people, trying to make sense of the music that\u2019s playing behind their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most of the world met Ed Sheeran through stadium crowds, catchy hooks, and songs about rainy nights and…\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-musician"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/artgardenhub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-243.png\")
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