Ed Sheeran maintains a low profile in Paris just days after releasing a deluxe edition of his latest album, which contains hints about strains in his marriage to Cherry Seaborn.
Fans are buzzing after Friday’s release of the deluxe version of Play, adding 14 extra tracks to the original album that dropped in September. Of those new songs, eight appear to touch on trouble within his seven-year marriage, fueling speculation about a possible split and the so-called seven-year itch that can affect couples in long-term relationships.
In public, the 34-year-old pop icon kept a discreet presence, bundled in a black padded coat and a cap as he strolled with a friend. He’s in the city for a multi-country tour, with Munich next on the itinerary before returns to the U.K. for shows in Coventry and Manchester over the weekend.
Ed and Cherry are parents to Lyra, five, and Jupiter, three, and their relationship has long been documented as a blend of honesty about its challenges and a shared commitment to working things out. The track that many listeners cite as most revealing is Skeletons, which portrays late-night arguments fueled by alcohol and a plea to bury the dispute until morning. Lyrics include: "We know how to stick the knife in / Took a word to change the course of the night / Saw a cliff and we kept drivin' / Here pouring gasoline onto the fire / Don't wanna make an enemy of you."
Other songs hint at divided attention in Technicolor, a desire to find peace in Satellite with lines like, "Spent the whole day in my head, just stressed out / Are we alright? / I know I say the wrong things sometimes / I'm a letdown / But we gave sometimes / And I fly too close to the sun with you now." Crashing captures the feeling of distance and reconciliation, singing, "So here we are again / Side by side, a thousand miles away / Lost for words to say / Why are the hearts we love the ones we break? / We split, we stall, we fail, we fall / We snap and then mend / I know it seems we're foldin' in / But let's not pretend." In Rapture, he expresses a drive to make amends, offering, "I'd give anything for us." The lyrics further describe a private struggle: "No one at this bar knows we've been goin' through some things / Fall out tonight, then work it out tomorrow / Even when we heal, it stings / Is this just a phase? Well, I hope so."
Back in 2023, Ed spoke about feeling overwhelmed after doctors discovered a tumor in Cherry’s arm. Cherry was diagnosed with cancer in February 2022, while she was six months pregnant with their second child.
The couple, who grew up together in the same Suffolk town, began dating in 2015 and quietly wed in a small ceremony in late 2018. It wasn’t until July 2019 that the singer publicly confirmed the marriage.
A source at the time of the wedding described it as deliberately intimate: a quiet affair with Ed’s oldest school friends, a small circle of family, and a single priest overseeing the ceremony. The guest list reportedly included about 40 people, with no high-profile guests, emphasizing a private moment for the couple rather than a public spectacle.
