Ed Sheeran gives rare insight into his baby daughter’s name Lyra Antarctica

Ed Sheeran has shared a rare insight into how he and his wife Cherry Seaborn came to name their daughter, now 10 months, Lyra Antartica. 

The singer, 30, appeared on Lorraine on Thursday where he talked about being a first-time dad as well as his friendship with Courteney Cox. 

Ed told Lorraine the reason behind his daughter’s middle name was because he went to Antartica at the end of 2019 with Cherry, 29, and said the southernmost continent was on his bucket list of places he wanted to visit. 

Speaking about the reason behind his daughter’s name, the Shape Of You hitmaker told the host: ‘I realise some people think it’s a strange and weird, but my wife is called Cherry and I think she’s the only Cherry I’ve ever met and I think we wanted to give her a name that was unique. 

‘And we went to Antartica when tour finished so that was always on our list. We went down there at the end of 2019 and it was just incredible the most amazing place on earth.’

It was previously reported Ed called his daughter Lyra after the central character in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials triology. 

On Desert Island Discs in 2017, Sheeran chose His Dark Material as his book choice and described it as ‘the greatest love story ever told’. 

Of her middle name, Ed told Lorraine: ‘The idea was we were wanting to have children but we said we need to go to Antarctica before we have them because you can’t take little kids there so we will take her when she’s older.’ 

Ed was also quizzed about his close friendship with Courteney Cox after the singer delighted fans with a video of himself recreating the Ross and Monica dance with the Friends star. 

The singer explained how Courteney, 57, is in a long-term relationship with his ‘best mate’ Snow Patrol band member Johnny McDaid. 

He said: ‘Yes I basically I arrived at hers, I don’t really stay in a hotel in LA, she’s actually dating my best mate, I actually introduced them weirdly. 

‘I stay at theirs and I was staying at hers when the Friends reunion was being filmed and we learnt the dance over the course of an hour drinking wine and the next evening we did it.

‘Weirdly, I’ve not actually got that many famous friends like close, close famous friends, maybe 3 or 4.’

Ed added: ‘Most of my friends are people I went to school with in Suffolk and that’s our kind of community but If I’m in Los Angeles there are close people there I can rely on.

‘And also, just to bring you back down to reality in the weirdest sense…my mates are very special I love them.’

Ed is back in the spotlight ahead of the release of his album Minus. 

He told Lorraine: ‘Yeah I feel good about it, it’s very emotive I know the first singles, the first one is quite shocking but the album, it feels like a coming-of-age album. 

‘I had a really close friend who passed away last year and I became a dad and became thirty and the album is a reflection of coming to terms with that.’