The 32-year-old musician can be seen crying in sad passages in his new Disney+ documentary The Sum of It All as he dwells on his fears that Cherry Seaborn may die.
She was diagnosed with a tumour in February 2022 while she was six months pregnant with their second child, and surgery would need to wait until after she had given birth.
Speaking in the documentary, Cherry, 30, said: ‘We had the diagnosis of the tumour and the next day Eds went down into the basement and wrote seven songs in four hours.
‘Some people write a diary and get their emotions out through the pen and for Ed, if something really intense happens, he’ll go and write a song.’
Cherry gave birth to baby daughter Jupiter one year ago, without needing to give birth early, while the couple also have Lyra Antarctica, two, together.
For Ed, writing songs for his new album Subtract was cathartic.
‘Music’s always been like therapy to me,’ the 32-year-old singer said. ‘It was a way to get me thoughts and feelings down as a kid, and it works. It really works.’
He added: ‘The moment you find the worst thing has happened to someone you truly love, you feel like you’re drowning and can’t get out from under it.’
During the same time, Ed was mourning the death of his friend Jamal Edwards and also facing a court battle after being accused of plagiarism over his hit Shape of You.
Judge Mr Justice Zacaroli ruled that the star ‘neither deliberately nor subconsciously’ copied a phrase from Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue’s 2015 track Oh Why, and there were significant differences despite similarities.
‘That was a horrible, horrible, horrible month,’ he said. ‘Life hasn’t moved on for me yet and I don’t think it will.’
He admitted he felt like he was ‘drowning’ when he found out Cherry had been diagnosed with a tumour, and ‘all these songs came out’ for the new record, which comes out this this week.
‘The moment you find the worst thing has happened to someone you truly love, you feel like you’re drowning and can’t get out from under it,’ he revealed. ‘Just from that situation, all these songs came out.
‘It’s scary putting your deepest, darkest thoughts out into the world, but I think I’m super ready to just put Subtract out and move on from it emotionally.’
