Ed Sheeran Opens Up About Eating Disorder and Feeling 'Embarrassed' by Addiction and Depression

etonline.com:

Ed Sheeran is opening up about his life in a way he never has before. The notoriously private musician broke down the hardest times of his life in an intimate interview published by  on Tuesday, peeling back the curtain of mystery surrounding his family life, battles with addiction and depression, and his upcoming album.«I spent so long with people laughing about me making music,» the 32-year-old tells of his highly memed rise to fame. «Everyone saw me as a joke, and no one thought I could do it.

And I think that's still the drive. There's still this need to prove myself. And I'm still kind of not taken seriously. If you were to speak to any sort of muso, 'Oh, I love my left-of-center music,' I'm the punchline to what bad pop music is.»Despite the jokes and ribbing on his versatile musical style — from «cheesy» hits like «Thinking Out Loud» to the unexpectedly sexy «Shape of You» and rap collaborations with 50 Cent, Meek Mill and Eminem -- Sheeran says he decided not to worry about what other people say about his music or his style. «But at the time being like, 'I don't know if I care.' And they became the biggest ballads in the world that year.

And you're like, 'Well, people must connect with cheese, then,'» he adds.Sheeran's long-awaited new album, , will be decidedly different from his previous musical offerings, mainly due to the five-year journey that led to its creation. «I had been working on  for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be,» Sheeran previously shared in a statement announcing the album's arrival.