In 2015, Ed Sheeran left social media and took a self-imposed year-long hiatus – not because he was tired, but because, he admits, he literally needed to learn how to live life and deal with people, including his fiancée, Cherry Seaborn.
“I ended the tour [behind my album, Multiply] and I [realized] I hadn’t ever really lived a life,” Ed tells People. “It’s quite weird being a touring ‘celebrity.’ People assume you’re living the best f**king life in the world, but you don’t really get to live any life because you work the whole time.”
“I was like ‘F*ck, I’m 25, I left school early and went straight into touring,’” he adds. “I haven’t properly formed relationships with people, so I needed to have a year off and spend it with friends and family and Cherry and actually become a human being.”
Ed said Cherry needed to do some living as well. “[She] went to university and then she went to do her Masters at Duke in North Carolina, and went straight into working on Wall Street in New York,” he explains. “She hadn’t really done anything either, so it was an opportunity for both of us to get to know each other and live life a little bit.”
In Ed’s new documentary Songwriter, there’s a montage of photos and video documenting the couple’s travels around the world. “She’s awesome, but I was against having her in the documentary just because I like to keep my personal life private,” he says. “But I think it’s such a split second of it and it does just capture what she’s like. It’s nice for people to see a little bit of that!”
Songwriter is available to watch on Apple Music.