She was closing deals on Wall Street while he was breaking streaming records worldwide. She was scoring goals at Duke University while he was topping Billboard charts. She was building a legitimate corporate career while he was becoming one of music’s biggest stars.
And when they finally got together? She didn’t quit her job. Didn’t chase fame. Didn’t become “Ed Sheeran’s girlfriend” professionally. Cherry Seaborn kept working at Deloitte’s London office until March 2024, nine years into their relationship and five years into marriage.
That’s not the typical celebrity spouse story. Most people marry global superstars and slide into influencer life. Launch lifestyle brands. Get papped at every restaurant. Build careers off reflected fame. Cherry did the opposite. She went to the office. Filed reports. Attended meetings. Lived like a normal person who just happened to be married to someone with 100 million Instagram followers.
But here’s what makes her story actually interesting. Before Ed Sheeran was Ed Sheeran, before the Grammys and the stadiums and the billions of streams, he knew Cherry. They were 11 years old. Classmates at Thomas Mills High in Suffolk, England. Just kids being kids. No romance. No destiny. Just two people who’d eventually inspire some of the most romantic songs ever written.
She’s the mystery woman behind “Perfect.” The inspiration for “Shape of You.” The person “Thinking Out Loud” was actually about. And despite being the muse for songs with literally billions of streams, most people know almost nothing about her. Because that’s exactly how she wants it.
Share this with your Ed Sheeran obsessed friend because Cherry Seaborn’s story is way more interesting than being famous for being famous.
When Two 11-Year-Olds Met And Had No Idea They’d Write History
Suffolk, England. Late 1990s or early 2000s. Thomas Mills High School. Two kids named Ed and Cherry in the same year group. They became friends. Close ones. The kind where you sit together at lunch, joke around between classes, exist in each other’s orbits without thinking it’s special.
Ed Sheeran later admitted on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast that if they’d dated back then, “it would have been a disaster.” Neither was ready. Both were figuring out who they were. Ed was the musical theater kid writing songs. Cherry was the athlete playing field hockey and excelling academically.
They were friends for years. Good friends. The kind you assume will always be there. Then life happened. Ed pursued music with obsessive focus, busking on streets, sleeping on couches, grinding toward a career that statistically shouldn’t have worked. Cherry pursued education and athletics with equal intensity, planning a future that involved America, business school, and corporate success.
They drifted apart naturally. Not through conflict or drama. Just life pulling people in different directions. Ed went on tour as his career exploded. Cherry went to Durham University in England for undergraduate studies, then across the Atlantic to Duke University in North Carolina for her master’s degree in Management Studies starting in 2013.
For years, they lost touch completely. Ed became Ed Sheeran, playing stadiums and collaborating with Taylor Swift. Cherry became a field hockey standout at Duke while studying business, living the American college dream she’d planned since high school. Two completely different worlds. Two people who’d been close once, living separate lives on separate continents.
Neither knew they’d find each other again. Neither expected what would happen when they did.
The New York City Reunion That Changed Everything
2015. New York City. Cherry was working on Wall Street for Deloitte after completing her Duke master’s degree. Living the corporate consultant life. Early mornings. Long hours. The specific chaos of finance jobs where you’re always on, always available, always proving yourself.
Ed was in town for his ongoing tour. Already massively famous. Already the guy whose songs everybody knew. Already living a life where privacy was impossible and every date made headlines.
A mutual friend was working on Ed’s tour. She happened to know both of them. One day, she planned to hang out with Cherry. Then she thought: why not invite Ed too? So she did. She asked if Ed wanted to catch up with his old school friend. He said yes immediately.
Ed later described being nervous about seeing Cherry again. Not just “oh hey old friend” nervous. Genuinely anxious because he’d apparently had feelings for her back in high school that never went anywhere. Now she was this accomplished professional and he was… Ed Sheeran. The dynamic was completely different.
They met up. And the connection that had been friendship in school became something else immediately. The conversation flowed. The comfort level was instant. And Ed, being Ed, did the most Ed Sheeran thing possible: he invited her to Taylor Swift’s legendary Fourth of July party at her Rhode Island mansion.
That became one of their first official dates. Because nothing says “let’s take this slow” like attending a celebrity party with Taylor Swift, models, actors, and photographers everywhere. But it worked somehow. Cherry wasn’t intimidated by Ed’s fame or the celebrity circus surrounding him. She had her own life, her own career, her own identity completely separate from his world.
They started dating properly after that. Long distance initially because Ed toured constantly and Cherry worked in New York. Then in 2016, Cherry transferred to Deloitte’s London office. Not explicitly to be closer to Ed, but the timing worked out that way. She moved back to the UK while maintaining her corporate career trajectory.
And Ed? Ed started writing different kinds of songs.
The Songs She Inspired Without Trying
“Perfect” might be Ed Sheeran’s most romantic song ever. Released in 2017, it hit number one in multiple countries and became the go-to wedding first dance song for millions of couples. The lyrics describe dancing barefoot in a dress, being in love in a field, seeing a future together.
That song is about Cherry. Specifically about their early dating days. Ed confirmed it multiple times in interviews, describing how Cherry inspired the song just by being herself. Not by doing anything dramatic or cinematic. Just by existing as this person he’d known forever but was seeing completely differently.
“Shape of You” from the same album became Ed’s biggest hit ever. Three billion plus streams on Spotify. Number one everywhere. The song that defined 2017 pop music. While it’s more generic lyrically than “Perfect,” Ed admitted Cherry influenced it too. The way she moved. The way she made him feel. All of it filtered into the music he was creating during that period.
“Thinking Out Loud” came before they officially got together, but Ed later admitted he was already thinking about Cherry when he wrote it. The song that won him the Grammy for Song of the Year was inspired by someone he hadn’t dated yet but couldn’t stop thinking about.
His entire album Divide, released in 2017 after they’d been dating for a couple years, is essentially a Cherry album. Most songs reference their relationship directly or indirectly. And instead of making her uncomfortable or putting pressure on their relationship, it apparently just made her laugh. Because Cherry’s not the type to take herself too seriously.
That’s the thing about being Ed Sheeran’s muse. She never asked for it. Never courted it. Never tried to capitalize on it. She just lived her life, and Ed wrote songs about how that made him feel. That’s possibly the most romantic creative partnership in modern music. Not because it’s performative. Because it’s genuine.
Don’t miss how they got married because it’s peak Ed and Cherry.
The Secret Wedding Nobody Knew About Until After
December 2018. Suffolk, England. Ed and Cherry invited 40 people to what guests thought was just a party. No massive announcements. No magazine exclusives. No Instagram teasers. Just 40 close friends and family members gathering at Ed’s estate.
Surprise. It was actually their wedding. Intimate ceremony. No fanfare. No paparazzi lurking outside. Just the people they loved most watching them get married in complete privacy. They didn’t tell anyone beforehand because they wanted the day to be about their commitment, not about managing celebrity chaos.
Ed later revealed during an interview that they married in December but didn’t publicly announce it for months. Some outlets reported the wedding happened in January 2018 based on when Ed started wearing a ring, but he clarified the actual ceremony was December 2018. The couple kept it so private that even the date remained unclear to media for a while.
Why the secrecy? Because both Ed and Cherry value privacy intensely. Cherry especially had no interest in becoming a public figure just because she married someone famous. She worked a corporate job. She wanted normal life as much as possible. A huge celebrity wedding with media coverage and public spectacle would’ve been her nightmare.
So they did it their way. Forty people. One ceremony. Zero publicity until after the fact. It’s possibly the least celebrity wedding ever thrown by someone of Ed’s fame level. And that’s exactly what made it perfect for them.
The wedding reportedly featured school friends from Thomas Mills High, family members, and close collaborators. The ceremony was traditional but personalized. Simple but meaningful. Everything a wedding should be without any of the excess celebrity weddings typically feature.
Ed wore a suit. Cherry wore a dress. They said vows. They were married. And for that one day, they got to be Ed and Cherry from Suffolk rather than Ed Sheeran and his wife. That’s increasingly rare at their level of fame. And they pulled it off.
Motherhood Changed Her Life But Not Her Identity
September 1, 2020. Ed posted a photo to Instagram. Knit blanket. Tiny baby socks. Caption announcing the birth of their first daughter: Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran. That’s how the world found out Cherry had been pregnant. That’s how they learned Ed was now a father. One simple post after everything was already done.
The couple had kept the pregnancy completely private. Zero public appearances where Cherry showed. Zero announcements or updates. Just living their lives away from cameras until their daughter arrived safely. Then, and only then, sharing the news on their terms.
The name Lyra Antarctica fascinated everyone. Lyra comes from the constellation, a nod to Ed’s love of astronomy and stars. Antarctica reflects Ed’s trip to the continent, which he’d described as life changing. Together, the names created something unique without being ridiculous. Very Ed and Cherry.
Lyra’s birth changed everything for them privately while changing nothing publicly. Ed continued making music. Cherry stayed home with their daughter initially but maintained connection to her career. They didn’t suddenly become celebrity parents posting every milestone. They stayed private people who just happened to have a famous last name.
May 19, 2022. Another Instagram post. Another knit blanket and baby socks photo. Another daughter: Jupiter Seaborn Sheeran. The family of three became a family of four. And again, the world only found out after everything was already settled and everyone was healthy.
Jupiter, like Lyra, came from Ed’s astronomical interests. The largest planet. Powerful name. Distinctive without being weird. The pattern continued: meaningful names with personal significance rather than trendy celebrity baby name choices.
Both pregnancies remained completely hidden from public view. That takes serious effort when you’re married to one of the most photographed musicians in the world. It requires staying out of the spotlight intentionally. Avoiding events. Declining opportunities. Choosing privacy over publicity at every turn.
Cherry made those choices consistently. And Ed supported them fully. Because for all his public persona and massive fame, Ed values the same privacy Cherry does. They built a family away from cameras. Away from speculation. Away from the toxic celebrity culture that destroys so many relationships.
Share this with your friend who thinks celebrity privacy is impossible because Ed and Cherry prove it’s not.
Why She Kept Working Until 2024
Here’s the part that really sets Cherry apart. Most people who marry superstars either already have their own careers or stop working once kids arrive. The combination of fame, wealth, and children usually means leaving traditional employment behind.
Cherry didn’t. According to her LinkedIn profile, she continued working for Deloitte’s London office until March 2024. That’s nine years into her relationship with Ed. Five years into marriage. Nearly four years after becoming a mother. She kept showing up to the office, doing consultant work, maintaining her professional identity.
Why? Because her career mattered to her. Because she’d worked hard to build professional credibility separate from her husband’s fame. Because “Ed Sheeran’s wife” wasn’t an identity she wanted to make her entire personality.
Working at Deloitte while married to someone worth hundreds of millions of dollars isn’t about needing the income. It’s about needing the purpose. The structure. The sense of accomplishment that comes from professional success you earned rather than fame you married into.
Cherry spent years getting her degrees. Durham University for undergrad. Duke University for her master’s. Then building a career at one of the world’s largest accounting and consulting firms. That’s serious professional achievement. Walking away from it just because her husband is famous would’ve meant discarding huge parts of her identity.
So she didn’t. She balanced corporate work, motherhood, and being married to a global superstar. That’s not easy. That requires exceptional time management, boundaries, and support systems. But she made it work until March 2024, when she finally stepped back, possibly to focus more on their daughters as they grew older.
That decision to keep working speaks volumes about who Cherry is. She’s not someone who needed rescuing or elevating through marriage. She had her own life, her own ambitions, her own sense of self. Ed didn’t make her. He just loved the person she already was.
The Field Hockey Career That Almost Was
Before Wall Street and before Ed Sheeran, there was field hockey. Cherry was legitimately elite at it. Good enough to play at Duke University, which has one of the strongest collegiate field hockey programs in America. That’s Division I athletics. Serious competition. Serious commitment.
She played while also completing her master’s degree in Management Studies at Duke’s business school. That’s a brutal combination. Student athletes at major programs essentially work full time between practices, games, travel, and recovery. Adding business school coursework on top of that requires absurd dedication.
Cherry made it work. She was part of Duke’s field hockey team while simultaneously excelling academically. That combination of athletic and academic achievement isn’t common. It requires discipline, time management, and genuine passion for both pursuits.
Even after graduation, Cherry kept playing field hockey recreationally. In 2021, photographers spotted Ed watching Cherry play with her local team in Suffolk. Years after Duke. Years into their relationship. Years into motherhood. She still found time for the sport she loved.
That commitment to field hockey reveals something important about Cherry. She’s not someone who drops hobbies or passions when life gets busy. She makes space for the things that matter to her. Hockey mattered. So she kept playing. Just like professional work mattered. So she kept working. Just like privacy mattered. So she stayed out of the spotlight.
The Taylor Swift Friendship Nobody Talks About
One of Cherry’s first dates with Ed was at Taylor Swift’s Rhode Island mansion during her famous Fourth of July party. The annual event that features models, actors, musicians, and social media spectacle. Not exactly low-key first date vibes.
But that’s how Cherry entered Ed’s celebrity world. Through Taylor, who’s been Ed’s close friend and collaborator for years. They wrote “Everything Has Changed” together. Ed featured on Taylor’s albums. They toured together. Their friendship is one of music’s genuine ones rather than PR-manufactured relationships.
When Ed started dating Cherry, bringing her to Taylor’s parties made sense. It integrated her into his friend group naturally. And apparently, Cherry and Taylor hit it off. They became actual friends rather than just tolerating each other because of Ed.
That friendship matters because it gave Cherry someone who understood the specific weirdness of dating/marrying someone extremely famous while wanting to maintain your own identity. Taylor’s been through it. She knows the pressures, the invasions of privacy, the constant speculation. Having that kind of friend probably helped Cherry navigate early relationship challenges.
The fact that Cherry maintained friendship with Taylor while staying completely out of the public eye is impressive. Most people would leverage that connection into social media content or publicity. Cherry didn’t. She just has a famous friend. Who happens to be Taylor Swift. And keeps that friendship private like everything else.
Drop a comment: Would you keep working if you married a superstar? Could you stay private married to someone with 100 million followers? Share this with your Ed Sheeran stan friend because Cherry Seaborn is the plot twist nobody expected.
Follow for more stories about the people behind the famous people. Because sometimes the most interesting person in the relationship is the one who doesn’t want attention. And Cherry Seaborn is proof that you can marry global fame without losing yourself to it.
Cherry Seaborn was building her own life long before Ed Sheeran’s songs made their love story public property. She’s the field hockey star who became a Wall Street consultant. The Durham graduate who got her master’s at Duke. The corporate professional who balanced Deloitte, motherhood, and marriage to a superstar until she decided on her own terms it was time to focus on family. She’s Ed’s childhood friend who became his muse without asking for it. His wife who married him in secret with 40 guests. The mother of Lyra and Jupiter who kept both pregnancies completely private. She’s proof that you can marry the most famous person in music and still live life mostly on your own terms. That privacy is possible if you actually want it. That identity matters more than proximity to fame. Cherry didn’t become interesting when she married Ed Sheeran. She was already interesting. He just wrote songs about it that the whole world happened to hear.
