Sheeran’s second daughter was born last May, but the singer, whose album will be released on May 5, did not provide any information about his wife’s state of health.

British singer Ed Sheeran revealed Wednesday that he “slid into depression” last year after his wife Cherry Seaborn was diagnosed with a tumor during her pregnancy with their second child and his friend Jamal Edwards died unexpectedly at the age of 31.

In a handwritten note announcing the release of his new album, Sheeran, who married Seaborn – his childhood sweetheart – in 2019, said there was “no treatment path until after the birth” of his second daughter.

The songwriter explained that he spiraled “through fear, depression, and anxiety” last year following Edwards’ sudden death. During that period, he was in court every day with a copyright lawsuit over his music.

“[A]t the start of 2022, a series of events damaged my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I view music and art,” Sheeran wrote in the note released on social media.

As a result, the 32-year-old dropped “hundreds” of songs he had written for his forthcoming sixth album, – (Subtract), an acoustic album produced by Aaron Dessner written against “a backdrop of sorrow and hope”.

The album was long planned as the conclusion of his “mathematical era” which began in 2011 with + (Plus) and continued with x (Multiply), ÷ (Divide), and = (Equals). But the entire project was rewritten in a week-long burst of emotion as the star “swirled through anxiety, depression and anxiety” last February.

It came after Edwards, who gave Sheeran his first big break, died suddenly of a heart attack after using cocaine and drinking alcohol, a coroner concluded.

Shortly thereafter, Sheeran faced a three-week copyright lawsuit over allegations that he plagiarised his hit song, Shape of You.

Though he eventually won, the singer and his co-writer Johnny McDaid said the case “troubled them tremendously”, and to get through these experiences, Sheeran used songwriting to make sense of his feelings.

“I felt like I was drowning, my head below the surface, looking up but not being able to catch my breath,” he recalled. “I wrote without thinking about what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever came to my mind. And in just over a week, I’ve replaced a decade’s work with my deepest, darkest thoughts.

“For the first time, I’m not trying to make an album that people will like, I’m just releasing something that’s honest and consistent with where I’m at in my adult life.

“It opens the trapdoor into my soul.”