Everything we know about Ed Sheeran's wife, Cherry Seaborn
Ed Sheeran’s love songs leave fans swooning, but it’s the subject of many of those songs that set his own heart aflutter — Cherry Seaborn.
She’s the “beautiful and sweet” partner from his hit “Perfect.” She’s the one he’s “falling deeper in love with” in “How Would You Feel?” And on the track “Castle on the Hill,” he celebrates the place where they shared their first kiss.
But the pop hits don't tell the whole story. Read on to learn more about the four-time Grammy winner's wife.
She and Sheeran go way back
Seaborn got to know the singer-songwriter long before his fans ever did. They were both raised in Suffolk, England, and both attended Thomas Mills High School as teens, where they formed a close friendship.
But when Seaborn moved to the other side of the Atlantic to seek her master’s degree at North Carolina’s Duke University, the pair lost touch.
That is until a mutual friend suggested a reunion in 2015.
“She was like, ‘Oh, Cherry Seaborn is in town, do you want to hang out?’” Sheeran recalled during a visit to Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast. “I was like, ‘Yes!’ In my head, the last time I’d seen Cherry, we hooked up. So ... it was like, ‘What if she remembers that?’ Because it was a while ago. It was very innocent. ... Very gentle. It was a kiss.”
Evidently, it was unforgettable.
In Sheeran’s 2017 hit, “Perfect,” he wrote about their past, singing, “Oh, I never knew you were the someone waiting for me/’Cause we were just kids when we fell in love/Not knowing what it was.”
She learned a lot on campus
While attending university briefly paused her connection to Sheeran, it also provided Seaborn with a rich educational foundation. According to her LinkedIn page, she earned a bachelor’s degree in cellular and molecular biology at Durham University UK, a master’s degree in management and business from Duke and a postgraduate certificate in sustainable business at the University of Cambridge.
While working on those degrees at both Durham and Duke, Seaborn also made a name for herself as a field hockey star, eventually helping Duke make it to the NCAA championship match in 2013.
She’s friends with Taylor Swift
Shortly after Seaborn and Sheeran crossed paths again in 2015, he invited her to join him at Taylor Swift’s July Fourth party.
“I was texting (Cherry), and she was like, ‘I’m in Rhode Island at a 4th of July party,’ and I was like, ‘So am I,’” Sheeran told People in March 2017. “I kind of said to Taylor, ‘Can I invite one of my old schoolmates?’ The rest is history.”
In fact, he said that party date marked the anniversary of his romance with Seaborn. It also marked the beginning of Seaborn’s friendship with the “Midnights” singer.
“Her and Taylor have hung out without me quite a few times; I think they have gal chats,” Sheeran told the publication. “I don’t know what they get up to, talking about cats or whatever.”
She said yes when he popped the question
After dating for two and a half years, Sheeran proposed Seaborn.
“Got myself a fiancé just before new year,” he wrote in a January 2018 post to Instagram. “We are very happy and in love, and our cats are chuffed as well xx”
Wedding buzz began just a month after that announcement when the “Shape of You” singer was seen wearing a silver ring on that finger. But he promptly shot down the rumors.
“I’m not married,” he told ITV’s “Lorraine” in February 2018. Instead, he explained that his band was actually an engagement ring.
“I never saw why men didn’t wear engagement rings,” he continued. “It’s the same commitment either way. Cherry made it for me herself out of silver clay. I really like it.”
He and Seaborn went on to say their “I dos” the following year — a surprise the couple revealed in his “Put It All on Me” music video.
As they starred together in the video, text on the screen summarized their romance: “Back in high school, Ed and Cherry were crushing hard. They made out at the ‘Castle on the Hill.’ A few years ago they reconnected, there were fireworks. They married in January 2019.”
She’s a mother of two
In addition to becoming Sheeran’s wife and musical muse, Seaborn soon added another distinction to her personal resume: mom.
In August 2020, the pair welcomed their first daughter to the world.
“Last week, with the help of an amazing delivery team, Cherry gave birth to our beautiful and healthy daughter — Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran,” the proud pop explained on Instagram. “We are completely in love with her. Both mum and baby are doing amazing and we are on cloud nine over here.”
And another daughter, Jupiter Seaborn Sheeran, joined the family in May 2022.
“Want to let you all know we’ve had another beautiful baby girl,” Sheeran wrote in another birth announcement. “We are both so in love with her, and over the moon to be a family of 4 x.”
She was diagnosed with cancer while pregnant
During Seaborn’s second pregnancy, she received shocking news.
As Sheeran revealed a year after Jupiter’s arrival, “(Cherry) got told she had a tumor, with no route to treatment until after the birth.”
The discovery rattled the couple.
In the docuseries “Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All,” Seaborn explained, “I got diagnosed with cancer at the start of the year which was a massive s-----. It made me massively reflect on our mortality.”
Seaborn had the tumor, which was located in her arm, successfully removed one month after giving birth.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
