Ed Sheeran Opens Up About His Struggles With Substance Abuse

We all know that Ed Sheeran took a very long year off ahead of the release of his most recent album, Divide.

Yes, it was to work on that album, but what we all didn’t know was that it was to recover from a secret struggle with substance abuse.

During his appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show recently, Ed opened up about the struggles he faced in the industry.

“I think you need to, when you get into the industry, adjust to [fame], and I didn’t adjust because I was constantly working on tour,” he shares.

“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.”

Ed adds that it took him some time to see a problem.

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

Ed continues, “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 and [I took] a year off.”