ED Sheeran has revealed his battle with booze after “loneliness” drove him to drink every day and put him in “dangerous situations”.
The pop superstar, 30, says in an exclusive interview that becoming a dad clawed him back from a life of excess and hard partying.
It’s after loneliness on tour had led him to drink alone — and he started bingeing at home when he took time off from music.
He ballooned to 15½st when he quit touring — after boozing every day and gorging on fried food.
Ed told The Sun: “I think really what happens is you get lonely – and you have things that you do in the middle of that loneliness to try and feel involved.
“It’s very solitary being a solo artist – even a successful one – because you come off stage and then suddenly it’s just you.
“I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me, it’s not about that, and in major cities I have mates and things are fine.
“But it’s when you’re on tour, somewhere new, and I have a tour crew who are in their 50s, married, kids, they don’t want to go out clubbing til 2am – and I’ve made a lot of mistakes.
“I was literally going out on my own, not knowing anyone, walking into a bar, and seeing where the night took me.
“I ended up in situations which were pretty dangerous, and now I think there are so many times where things could have happened to me and I’m very grateful that they didn’t.”
But the A-lister told how he turned his lifestyle around when wife Cherry was pregnant last year with daughter Lyra.
Ed said: “Since becoming a dad I’ve become quite clean-living. But I think actually taking time off and not being on tour was the worst thing for my health because I would drink every single day.
“I stopped three months before Lyra was born because I was determined I was going to be the person to drive my wife to the hospital. I was 15-and-a-half stone at my peak and I think I’m ten-and-a-half now – I was big, it really showed. I had a 36 waist — now I’m down to 28.
“I always knew I was big, but I knew why I was big too – I loved chicken wings, wine, beer, and I never exercised.
“I do still do all the things I love. I drank wine yesterday, I just didn’t drink two bottles of it. I don’t ever want to ‘quit’ anything either. Because I feel like if you totally try to quit something at some point you’ll probably end up starting to try and binge it again.”
It’s after loneliness on tour had led him to drink alone — and he started bingeing at home when he took time off from music.
He ballooned to 15½st when he quit touring — after boozing every day and gorging on fried food.
Ed told The Sun: “I think really what happens is you get lonely – and you have things that you do in the middle of that loneliness to try and feel involved.
“It’s very solitary being a solo artist – even a successful one – because you come off stage and then suddenly it’s just you.
“I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me, it’s not about that, and in major cities I have mates and things are fine.
“But it’s when you’re on tour, somewhere new, and I have a tour crew who are in their 50s, married, kids, they don’t want to go out clubbing til 2am – and I’ve made a lot of mistakes.
“I was literally going out on my own, not knowing anyone, walking into a bar, and seeing where the night took me.
“I ended up in situations which were pretty dangerous, and now I think there are so many times where things could have happened to me and I’m very grateful that they didn’t.”
But the A-lister told how he turned his lifestyle around when wife Cherry was pregnant last year with daughter Lyra.
Ed said: “Since becoming a dad I’ve become quite clean-living. But I think actually taking time off and not being on tour was the worst thing for my health because I would drink every single day.
“I stopped three months before Lyra was born because I was determined I was going to be the person to drive my wife to the hospital. I was 15-and-a-half stone at my peak and I think I’m ten-and-a-half now – I was big, it really showed. I had a 36 waist — now I’m down to 28.
“I always knew I was big, but I knew why I was big too – I loved chicken wings, wine, beer, and I never exercised.
“I do still do all the things I love. I drank wine yesterday, I just didn’t drink two bottles of it. I don’t ever want to ‘quit’ anything either. Because I feel like if you totally try to quit something at some point you’ll probably end up starting to try and binge it again.”
- EQUALS is released tomorrow on all platforms.