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‘I’VEALREADY
ACHIEVEDMORETHAN
ITHOUGHTICOULD’
ASHETOPSTHECHARTSONCEAGAINOK!TAKESALOOKAT
EDSHEERAN’SDOMINATIONOFTHEMUSICINDUSTRYFEATURE BY ELLEN TYLSDESLEY
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBBY KLEIN/GETTY IMAGES
FOR NARAS, GETTY IMAGES, PA, WIRE IMAGEOK!C
ontinuing his unbroken run of
chart-topping albums, nobody was
surprised to see Ed Sheeran’s fourth
studio release, No 6 Collaborations
Project, debut at number one. Already the
fastest-selling album of the year, the record
sees the red-headed musician collaborate
with the likes of Justin Bieber, Eminem and
Cardi B. After eight years in the industry, the
28 year old recently said of the collection
of A-list collaborations: ‘The fact is, I’ve
already achieved more than I thought I
could. So now I’m at a point where I’m
just having fun.’ Indeed, his achievements
so far are beyond what most could ever
have imagined.
His 2012 debut album, + (Plus), saw him
win Best British breakthrough and Best
British Solo Artist at the
BRIT Awards. Follow-up X
(Multiply), landed him two
Grammy nominations and
single Thinking Out Loud
won two Grammys the
following year. His 2017
single Shape Of You is still
the most streamed song on
Spotify, a record it claimed
within 24 hours of release.
And Ed’s third album,
÷ (Divide), became the
fastest-selling pop album of
all time by a male artist and
its entire tracklist claimed
the first 16 spots in the UK
top 40.
Ed – who is now said to be worth
£128 million – learned to play guitar while
at school, and began recording music in- He moved to London in 2008, and
after years of busking and sofa hopping,
Ed was finally signed to Asylum Records
in 2011, with his single The A-Team then
thrusting him towards
international fame.
Born in Halifax,
West Yorkshire, Ed and
his family later moved
to Framlingham in
Suffolk, where he met
childhood sweetheart
Cherry Seaborn, who
would later become
his wife. Famously
secretive about his
private life, Ed has
always preferred to
address matters of
the heart through his
music. He sang about his romance with
Nina Nesbitt in his track Nina, while Don’t
is rumoured to refer to his relationship with
Ellie Goulding.
And true to form, he finally confirmed
his marriage to Cherry on his latest album,
referring to her as his ‘wife’ on track
Remember The Name. Opening up about
his lyrical confession, Ed recently explained:
‘It was actually [written] before me and
Cherry got married and I knew that we’d be
married by the point the song came out.’
The couple met as pupils at Thomas
Mills High School. But while Ed left school
at 16 to pursue a music career, Cherry
eventually moved to study in North
Carolina. It wasn’t until Ed took some much
needed time away from the spotlight in
2015 that the pair reunited,
when he visited Cherry.
The rest, as Ed puts it,
was ‘history’. Opening up
in the early days of their
relationship, Ed said: ‘This
has been the first time I’ve
ever actually had the time
to fall in love properly.’
The pair confirmed their
engagement on Instagram in
2018, and reportedly tied the
knot in an intimate ceremony
in December. It is believed
that later this summer they
will throw a larger celebration
to mark their marriage. As
the subject of Ed’s recent collaboration with
American singer Yebba, Best Part Of Me,
Cherry continues to be her husband’s muse.
Explaining the ballad’s premise, he said: ‘I
constantly wake up every day with Cherry and
I’m just like, why the f*** are you with me?
Like, you could literally be with whoever you
wanted, and you’ve chosen me.’Ed reportedly spent £4 million this year
buying the two neighbouring properties
to their Suffolk home, as well as the flat
above his Notting Hill restaurant in a bid to
prevent noise complaints from neighbours.
Despite his undeniable success, the
celebrity spotlight has had its pitfalls for the
star, who recently revealed he is affected
by social anxiety ‘every day’, explaining: ‘I
don’t like large groups of people, which is
ironic given I play shows to thousands of
people. I feel claustrophobic and I don’t
like being around many people. I have no
problem with talking to people. But it’s
when people film me and stare at me. It
makes me feel weird.’
And as he constantly juggles the balance
of life as a musician and maintaining his
privacy, Ed has hinted that family life will
soon overtake his public persona. Admitting
he doesn’t plan to stick around in the
music industry forever, he once
confessed: ‘My ambition is
going to go to zero as soon as
I have kids,’ adding: ‘It’s totally
understandable because you
have children and your ambition
shifts to be like, I want to be a
good father.’
And though we can’t wait to
see some tiny Eddies, we can
only hope that Ed doesn’t really
put his guitar down for good!a ted, a d you e c oseAbove: Playing
Glastonbury in 2017.
Below left: With his
wife CherryAbove: Ed appeared
in Game Of Thrones.
Right: With collaborator
Justin Bieber