LONDON, Dec 1:  Ed Sheeran appears to have opened up about potential marital difficulties in the deluxe version of his latest album, Play, released Friday, following earlier hints on his 2023 album Autumn Variations.

The 34-year-old singer added 14 new tracks to Play, originally released in September, with at least eight songs reportedly referencing challenges in his seven-year marriage to Cherry Seaborn. Fans have speculated the couple may be facing the so-called “seven-year itch.”

Sheeran, who shares two children with Seaborn – Lyra, five, and Jupiter, three – reflects in the songs on trying to make their relationship work, recounting past splits and reconciliations.

In Skeletons, he references late-night arguments and pleads for calm: “We know how to stick the knife in / Took a word to change the course of the night / Saw a cliff, and we kept drivin’ / Here pouring gasoline onto the fire / Don’t wanna make an enemy of you.”

Other tracks further explore marital tensions. In Technicolor, Sheeran admits: “My attention's been divided”, while Satellite shows a desire for reconciliation: “Spent the whole day in my head, just stressed out / Are we alright? / I know I say the wrong things sometimes / I'm a letdown / But we gave sometimes / And I fly too close to the sun with you now.”

Crashing sees Sheeran question why loved ones hurt each other: “So here we are again / Side by side, a thousand miles away / Lost for words to say / Why are the hearts we love the ones we break? / We split, we stall, we fail, we fall / We snap and then mend / I know it seems we’re foldin’ in / But let’s not pretend.”

Several other tracks, including Rapture, Spiral, and Problems, touch on fatherhood, anxiety, and the pressures of Sheeran’s world tour on family life. In Regrets, he reflects on missed time with 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…Missed out on so much / I really need to make it up.”

Sheeran also acknowledged past health struggles, including his wife’s 2022 cancer diagnosis during her pregnancy with their second child.

Sheeran and Seaborn first met at age 11 in Suffolk, England, and began dating in 2015 after reconnecting in New York City. The couple married in a small, private ceremony in late 2018.

In a statement accompanying the deluxe album release, Sheeran described the creative process: “It was so hard to choose the songs for this album… There’s 14 songs that aren’t on the main album, which is kind of an album in itself, so I hope you have fun digging into them…2025 is coming to an end now; it was the year of Play for me. Next year, we start the Loop tour, and I’ll be finishing whatever is next.”

The deluxe edition of Play offers fans additional insight into Sheeran’s personal life, blending reflections on love, family, and the challenges of maintaining relationships under public scrutiny.