'Indescribably painful': Lorde delays new album after death of beloved dog

Celebrities may be shielded from many of life's hardships, but in a deeply personal letter to fans, New Zealand singer Lorde has revealed that she is experiencing something that millions of people face every year: heartbreak over the death of a beloved dog.

The 22-year-old singer adopted a retriever cross named Pearl in 2018, and according to her letter to fans, the two spent all of their time alone together — on the porch, in the park, or at the piano, under which Pearl would sleep while Lorde played.

She explains that from the start Pearl had a host of health issues, but that "everything was looking good."

"But one day we woke up and I knew, in that way mothers do, that he was sicker than we had realised, and that we were nearing a point where his body wasn't going to be able to cope," she wrote.

"I rushed him to the specialists. Pearl had two cardiac arrests about an hour apart, and after the second one, he died. I was holding him when he went, and I know he knew that I was there. But this loss has been indescribably painful, and a light that was turned on for me has gone out."

Lorde goes on to explain what a significant role Pearl played in her creative process, and how that has changed now that he has gone.

"A light that was turned on for me has gone out," she wrote. "He was instrumental to the discovery that was taking place. I felt he led me towards the ideas. And it's going to take some time and recalibration, now that there's no shepherd ahead of me, to see what the work is going to be."

Lorde asks fans for their patience as 2020 approaches, and they begin to wonder where the next album is.

"I have lost my boy, and I need some time to see the good again, to finish making this for you. It won't be the same work — as anyone who has felt loss can understand, there's a door that opens that you step through, and everything is different on the other side," she writes.

"But when this great loss crystallizes inside me, and my chest rebuilds around it, hopefully I'll be able to finish up, and share it with you, and we'll all grow together, as we always do."

While social media users have been poking fun at Lorde's announcement, her legions of fans are showing support — and despite the difficult circumstances, excitement that a new album is on its way.

Lorde skrocketed to fame with the 2012 release of her single Royals, and continued with her first full-length album, 2013's Pure Heroine.

Her success continued through 2017 with the release of her sophomore album Melodrama, which landed a Grammy nomination for album of the year.