Given how romantic Ed Sheeran's songs are [2], it should come as no surprise that the 26-year-old is just as passionate about his relationships in real life. Since shooting to fame in 2011, the British singer-songwriter [3] has had a string of hookups and girlfriends [4], but none has appeared as serious as his current relationship with Cherry Seaborn (pictured above). The former high school classmates took their friendship to the next level [5] in September 2015, after which Cherry relocated from America to her native UK to be with him. Now that Ed has released his third album, Divide [6], he's finally begun opening up about their relationship, and it sounds incredibly sweet.
- On having both a booming career and happy love life [8]: "I always thought to have a really good career, you always had to be incredibly unhappy, and I always thought to be really happy, you had to have a bad career, because I didn't see the balance of the two. And I've realized that that's obviously bullsh*t, and just what you tell yourself to justify it. I live with Cherry now. We've got cats, we have takeaways and watch movies, we have people round for dinner. I've never had that."
- On Cherry keeping him grounded [9]: "It's awesome meeting famous people. But that's not life. That's not reality. One day this will f*cking end. And I know the one person that's going to remain constant is Cherry. I should just enjoy this while it's there, but not let it become my reality. Because that's not the reality I want to live in."
- On having a girlfriend who adapts to his lifestyle: "One of the main points of being in a relationship with me, you have to be really f*cking sociable and good at talking to people, because I will be dragged away loads at parties and events. And Cherry's perfect at it. She makes friends with everyone."
- On delaying his career for love [10]: "This has been the first time I've actually had the time to fall in love properly. 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 really cool — but we were just basically like, let's quit our jobs and have a year of forming a tight bond. So we went traveling and spent every day for a year together."
- On getting together with Cherry at the right time: "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."
- On having a family together: "I wanted to be a dad, like, last year. I'm ready, let's go — tour bus babies, little fat, chubby babies that just walk around."