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Ed Sheeran and his wife, Cherry Seaborn, have a long and epic love story. The happily married couple met when they were young, but it took their love years to bloom. She’s the inspiration behind some of Sheeran’s most painfully romantic songs — they met on a castle on a hill, he’s presently in love with the shape of her and they’re overall just plain perfect together — but they tend to be seriously private about their love and the life they’re building together outside of Sheeran’s musical insights.
Seaborn has met all of Sheeran’s most famous friends (yes, she got the ever-important Taylor Swift Seal of Approval), but the couple’s cats are somehow still more famous than she is. Basically, there are definitely aspects of this relationship that are just an enigma wrapped in a mystery and topped with a question mark.
But no couple is just pure perfection, and no lasting relationship is built without its share of quirks. Here are some of the strangest details about Sheeran and Seaborn’s ever-evolving (yet undeniably adorable) relationship.
They met as kids, but didn’t actually date until after he was famous
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Ed Sheeran and his now-wife, Cherry Seaborn, met in their hometown of Suffolk, England, when Ed was just 11 years old. They were both students at Thomas Mills High School as teens and Sheeran has since admitted to crushing on Seaborn even back then, but he never got the chance to act on those feelings when they were classmates. The future-spouses went their separate ways when Seaborn moved to the United States to attend Duke University in North Carolina. Meanwhile, Sheeran, of course, focused on growing his music career.
«There was always something there between them. Ed had a crush on Cherry at school, but she had a boyfriend then. I don’t think Ed wants to date another celebrity again, having been burned too many times, and Cherry is definitely his type,» a source told British magazine Heat (via News24) of the relationship in 2015.
Sheeran’s 2017 song «Castle on the Hill» (screenshot above) is about his teen years growing up in Suffolk and the song’s video features a young cast clearly meant to mirror the group of friends Sheeran grew up with. The red headed lead (clearly meant to represent a young Sheeran) has a cute blonde love interest who could be interpreted to represent a younger version of Seaborn (especially in light of the couple’s 2019 revelation that they «made out at the Castle on the Hill»).
Cherry Seaborn and Ed Sheeran took a year off to fall in love
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Ed Sheeran is no stranger to lists of celebs who are refreshingly down-to-earth. So, it was no surprise when he famously took a year off in 2016 as a chance to reboot and get his priorities in order. «Life’s all about balance, and I wasn’t getting the balance right,» he explained to People. He said that the time off helped him find «normality»— which included a lot of quality time with his then-girlfriend, Cherry Seaborn.
Sheeran later emphasized the pivotal role the break played in nurturing his romance. «This has been the first time I’ve actually had the time to fall in love properly,» Sheeran told Zane Lowe on Beats 1 Radio. «So the catalyst of taking a year off was also the fact that my partner quit her job in New York — which she’s now got back in London … which is kinda cool — but we were just basically like, let’s both quit our jobs and have a year of forming a tight bond. … So we went traveling and spent every day for a year together … I’ve probably had three days apart from her in the last year … but we’re very, very strong. I’ve never been happier. I’ve never been more comfortable. I’ve never been more inspired. I feel like everything’s fallen into place, and it’s fallen into place because I’ve given it the time to fall into place.»
Their Instagram famous cats ship them
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Ed Sheeran and Cherry Seaborn are pet parents to two of the cutest cats on the internet, Dorito and Calippo. These adorable kittens are clearly an important (make that key) part of Sheeran and Seaborn’s lives and, like many loving pet owners, the power couple even started a dedicated Instagram account to document their furbabies’ lives. «Me and Cherry literally had them from birth, and they think that we’re their mother, from our warmth and our smells,» Sheeran told People of the furry members of the fam. On their Instagram account, the adorable duo are known collectively as «The Wibbles,» and Dorito and Calippo are officially Insta-famous in their own right, with more than 327,000 followers (and counting).
Dorito and Calippo have been a huge part of Sheeran and Seaborn’s relationship since long before the launch of their ‘Gram in July 2018. Back in January of that year, when Sheeran announced his engagement to Seaborn on his own Instagram, he also revealed that the feline members of the household were most definitely HERE for the news. «Got myself a fiancé just before new year. We are very happy and in love, and our cats are chuffed as well xx,» Sheeran wrote.
Taylor Swift dedicated her annual Fourth of July party to their anniversary
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One of Ed Sheeran and Cherry Seaborn’s first real dates came when he brought her as his guest to his longtime friend Taylor Swift’s annual Fourth of July party in 2015. The date became their official dating anniversary and Swift even celebrated their one-year anniversary at her party the following year, complete with a pun-tastic banner that read, «Happy 1st Ed-iver-Cherry!» The «Lover» singer also revealed one of the first pictures of Sheeran and Seaborn kissing in an Instagram post from the party (above).
«Well, our anniversary is her 4th of July party,» Sheeran told People of the special day in his relationship. «I’ve known Cherry since I was 11. She worked on Wall Street in New York, and I had like six shows [around New York in 2015]. It was around then, and we reconnected. I went on tour again, and then I went to Taylor’s 4th of July party. I was texting [Seaborn], and she was like, ‘I’m in Rhode Island at a 4th of July party,’ and I was like, ‘So am I.’ I kinda said to Taylor, ‘Can I invite one of my old schoolmates?’ The rest is history.»
Ed Sheeran wore an engagement ring, too
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Although Ed Sheeran and Cherry Seaborn didn’t actually tie the knot until January 2019, rumors flew long before then that they had secretly married. In February 2018, Ed was spotted wearing a silver ring on his ring finger at the BRIT awards (above), which led to a lot of speculation about a secret ceremony for the couple. On the red carpet for that event, Lorraine‘s Dan Wooton asked Sheeran about the rumor-sparking piece of bling directly and the singer shot down the rumors. «I’m not married,» Sheeran clarified before elaborating on the true meaning of the ring. «I never saw why men didn’t wear engagement rings. It’s the same commitment either way. Cherry made it for me herself out of silver clay. I really like it. I haven’t told anyone that, either.»
Okay, so maybe this is less «odd» than it is just completely adorable, because in another interview that evening, with Sky News, Sheeran reiterated that the accessory was, in fact, his way of showing his commitment to Seaborn before their wedding. «It’s an engagement ring, because I feel like…I don’t know,» he explained. «I feel like it’s good to both do things.»
Cherry Seaborn’s inbox is better than yours
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Many people think «Perfect» is Ed Sheeran’s most romantic song ever. Even though actress Zoey Deutch (above) plays Sheeran’s love interest in the song’s beyond romantic, snow-kissed music video, it was inspired by his real love life. During an interview with Us Weekly, the singer/songwriter revealed that his wife, Cherry Seaborn, was the inspiration behind the uber swoon-worthy track.
The song might be insanely romantic, but the way Sheeran shared it with Seaborn definitely wasn’t. «‘Perfect’ was the first song that I wrote for the album, It was inspired by Cherry,» he told Us Weekly at the time. «The line that goes, ‘Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song’ was about when we were in Ibiza listening to Future’s ‘March Madness’, literally not wearing any shoes and going mental on the lawn, which was quite a nice time. I didn’t see her first reaction to the song because she lived in New York at the time. So I just emailed it to her but she did really like it.»
Nothing says «comfortable and secure in this relationship» quite like being at the point of casually emailing your partner a song that’s about them and is so romantic it’s guaranteed to be played at a thousand weddings.
Ed Sheeran almost jumped the gun on confirming his marriage
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In July 2019, more than a year and a half after announcing his engagement, Ed Sheeran finally publicly confirmed that he and Cherry Seaborn had wed. In true Sheeran form, the announcement came in the form of a song—specifically, in a line from «Remember My Name,» in which he refers to her as his wife. The track, which is a collaboration with Eminem and 50 Cent, contains the lyric, «Watch how the lyrics in the songs might get twisted / My wife wears red, but looks better without the lipstick.» Even though Sheeran and Seaborn were officially husband and wife by the time the song made it to the airwaves, the singer actually hadn’t yet put a ring on it when he penned the lyric.
«It was actually before me and Cherry got married, and I knew that we’d be married by the point that the song came out,» Sheeran explained in an interview with Charlamagne tha God shortly after the song’s release. «Someone’s gonna hear that and be like, ‘Oh, they’re married!’ I didn’t know how that would be construed, but obviously it’s already come out.»
They gave fans the biggest insight ever into their relationship in a music video
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Ed Sheeran’s video for «Put It All On Me,» his collab with Ella Mai, features several couple’s love stories. Sheeran and Seaborn documented their own love for it as well, and their appearance in the video isn’t just adorable, it also marked a rare look into the couple’s private life and offered new details about their love story via captions that appear on screen during their part of the video.
«Back in high school, Ed and Cherry were crushing hard,» explains one caption that pops up as Sheeran and Seaborn dance like no one is watching in the kitchen of their London apartment. «They made out at the ‘Castle on the Hill,'» explains another caption, referencing Sheeran’s 2017 single «Castle on the Hill,» about his teenage days. «A few years ago they reconnected, there were fireworks,» the caption continues, referring to Fourth of July 2015, when the pair rekindled their romance. The video also marked the moment when Sheeran confirmed exactly when he and Seaborn tied the knot: January 2019.