Ed Sheeran almost retired after the birth of his daughter.

The 'Bad Habits' singer took a year off following the success of his 2017 album 'Divide' and subsequent tour in order to start "searching for who [he] was" and once his wife Cherry gave birth to their little girl Lyra last September, he considered making the break permanent.

He told SiriusXM:"I stopped playing music for a bit. And music is entirely me as a person. Then I had my daughter and I was like, 'Right, that’s it. This is me. I am probably just going to be a dad. I am not going to play music anymore.' "

However, after putting a lot of "time and effort" into being with his baby, the 30-year-old star felt there was something missing and he realised it was important to set a good example to his daughter by going back to work.

He said: "Then I was suddenly like, it is more important for my daughter to grow up knowing that her parents have a work ethic.

"I slowly got back into music that way and the creative process started flowing again."

Despite pondering his retirement, the 'Castle on The Hill' hitmaker recently revealed he wrote hundreds of songs on his break.

He said: I have done two albums and have written like 250 songs. In that, about 50 ballads.

“I write about 25 songs a week and one of them will be all right and that will go on the ‘maybe’ list.”

What's more, it's been claimed the Grammy-winner had some songwriting sessions with Sir Elton John ahead of the release of his upcoming album, which is expected to be called 'Subtract'.

An insider recently said: “Ed and Elton put their heads together and got some new tracks written together. They’re really good pals and it was great they could connect and work on new music together.

“The songs they wrote are great and they have a very special place in Ed’s heart.”

And he recently revealed Kylie Minogue and Jimmy Barnes feature on the track 'Visiting Hours', which he penned in tribute to his late friend, music executive Michael Gudinski.

He said: “Jimmy Barnes and Kylie are actually singing on that on the album now. I’ve got them singing backing vocals on it.

“From knowing Michael, they are the most important people in his life musically. He was always saying, ‘Kylie’ or ‘Jimmy Barnes’.

“When I was in Australia, I sang with Kylie and I was hanging with Jimmy Barnes and I said to them, ‘You guys have to be on the song.’

“So I got back to England, I recorded it and sent it off to them and they’re on it.

“I used to send Michael songs because he would always say, ‘You need to send me songs for Jimmy’.

“So I used to send him loads. He always wanted me to sing with Kylie and I ended up getting to sing with her."