Ed Sheeran
Credit: Instagram @teddysphotos

On December 24, 2019, Ed Sheeran, best known as @teddysphotos on Instagram, published a post to his 31.4 million followers detailing that he needed a “breather” following two years of his successful Divide album and tour. Essentially, that was the last we heard from the artist. Now, in a candid new video titled ‘Finding Peace at the Top of the Music Industry’, we have heard from him once again.

Filmed for the Hay House Chasing the Present Summit, the artist speaks on struggles with alcohol abuse and binge eating during the “lowest point” of his life, in 2015.

“I have a very addictive personality,” the Grammy-winner said in the new video. “I would stay up and drink all night. The buses would park underneath arenas and I’d sleep on the bus all day and then wake up and then come out, do the show, drink, get back on the bus. I didn’t see sunlight for like maybe like four months.”

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This time in his life coincided with the promotion of his 2014 album, X. 

“I’m covered in tattoos and I don’t do things by halves,” he said. “If I’m gonna drink, I kinda see no point in having a glass of wine. I’d rather have two bottles of wine…It’s all fun and games at the start. It’s all rock and roll and it’s fun, and then it starts getting just sad. So I think that was probably the lowest that I’ve been.”

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The turning point according to the 29-year-old was during reading Elton John’s memoir, Me. “He would be like, ‘I would just go on an ice cream binge and eat four fucking desserts until I threw it up,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve done that before,’” Sheeran shared. “Or his martini binges, where he sees how many martinis he can drink. And I’m like, ‘I’ve done that before, too.’”

He attributes his wife to saving him from the deadly cycle and now works through exercise “in moderation”.

Watch the full interview above.

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