Singer Ed Sheeran alludes to marital crisis on deluxe edition of album ‘Play’

Ed Sheeran appears to be “thinking out loud” about more than just romance this time, opening up about the strain on his marriage in new songs added to the deluxe edition of his album Play.

 The singer released 13 additional tracks, and several of them dive directly into the challenges he and his wife, Cherry Seaborn, have faced.

On the track “War Game,” Sheeran sings, “Inches from movin’ out and movin’ on… either in love or we’re insane,” before affirming his loyalty with the line that there is no one above or below the woman he loves and no one else he’d rather be with. In another new song titled “Problems,” he admits to turmoil at home, singing, “Flowers in our garden are dying / When did the water run dry? / Who can tell? / But you want the truth, we’re not fine.”

Sheeran and Seaborn, who began dating in 2015, got engaged in 2017 and married the following year. They share two daughters—five-year-old Lyra and three-year-old Jupiter. Much of Sheeran’s recent writing also reflects the difficulty of being a present parent while maintaining a massive global career. His multi-year “+−=÷×” tour, which began in 2022, only wrapped up this year, and in the song “Regrets,” he sings about how the distance has affected his children.

“You’re too young to understand that Daddy’s coming home / Every time I leave the house, you think I’m forever gone / Guess it’s from the hundred calls, goodnights on the telephone / See this tour, I’ve gotta get it done, but why though? / Missed out on so much, I really need to make it up,” Sheeran admits in the emotional lyrics.

The new tracks paint a picture of a musician grappling with the pressures of fame, fatherhood and marriage, revealing the personal cost of a career that keeps him constantly on the move.