Ed Sheeran Reveals Secret Struggle With Substance Abuse

Ed Sheeran is a household name, with more number ones at this stage of his career than most will get in a lifetime.

However, when he was seemingly at the top of his game in October 2015, he announced a year long hiatus from the super-stardom which he had achieved.

He’s now opened up about his time away from the music industry and revealed he took the break to deal with substance abuse.

The award-winning musician opened up about his struggles on a new episode of The Jonathan Ross Show, which will air tonight, telling Ross how his problems stemmed from his difficulty in coping with his new-found fame.

Check out the video below of Sheeran starring alongside James Corden in Carpool Karaoke:

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He said, via People:

I think you need to, when you get into the industry, adjust to it – and I didn’t adjust because I was constantly working on tour.

And all the pitfalls that people read about, I just found myself slipping into all of them. Mostly, like, substance abuse.

I never touched anything. I started slipping into it and that’s why I took a year off and buggered off.

He said of his descent into substance abuse:

I didn’t really notice it was happening. It just started gradually happening and then some people took me to one side and were like, ‘Calm yourself down.’

It’s all fun to begin with, it all starts off as a party and then you’re doing it on your own and it’s not, so that was a wake-up call.

Ed revealed the substance abuse was beginning to take a toll on his creative output, as he couldn’t work when ‘under the influence.’

This was a major wake-up call for the superstar as he realised he was at risk of losing everything he’d worked so hard for.

He said:

I’ve worked my whole life to get to where I am and you can’t lose that over something that you do in your spare time.

Ed was recently in a bicycle accident which resulted in both of his arms breaking as well as a rib. As a result, he’s had to postpone part of his world tour to focus on recovery.

An Instagram caption read:

A visit to my doctors confirmed fractures in my right wrist and left elbow that will leave me unable to perform live concerts for the immediate future.

Sadly, this means that the following shows will not be able to go ahead as planned: Taipei, Osaka, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

It continued:

I’m waiting to see how the healing progresses before we have to decide on shows beyond that.

Please stay tuned for more details.

PS – Ed isn’t typing this as he has both arms casted/bandaged.