LONDON • British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran said on Tuesday his wife had given birth to the couple's first child, a girl who they had named "Lyra Antarctica Seaborn Sheeran".

"Last week, with the help of an amazing delivery team, Cherry gave birth to our beautiful and healthy daughter," the record-breaking musician said on Instagram alongside a photo of a pair of tiny socks.

"Both mum and baby are doing amazing and we are on cloud nine over here."

The 29-year-old singer is the most successful British artist of the last decade, spending a total of 79 weeks at the top of the charts with eight No.1 singles, including the global smash Shape Of You, and four studio albums.

He married childhood school friend Cherry Seaborn in January last year, according to the video for his song Put It All On Me.

Lyra is the name of the protagonist in English novelist Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, a trilogy of fantasy novels that Sheeran chose as his book on the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs in 2017.

Northern Lights, the first book in the trilogy, was adapted into the 2007 movie The Golden Compass, which starred Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Lyra was played by English actress Dakota Blue Richards.

REUTERS