Sting, the former Police frontman, drew on the emotional fallout of his very public first divorce, from actress Frances Tomelty, when writing some of his best-known songs of the 1980s. He later married Trudie Styler, Tomelty's best friend, with whom he had had an affair, in 1992. Several tracks written during this turbulent period, including two from The Police and one from his debut solo album, are widely understood to reflect the jealousy, introspection and reconciliation he experienced at the time.

Sting has said "Every Breath You Take" is not the romantic ballad many take it to be, but rather a "nasty little song" about jealousy and surveillance, written in Jamaica as he tried to escape the scrutiny surrounding his divorce. "King of Pain," written during the same Jamaica trip with new partner Trudie Styler, emerged from a spontaneous exchange between the pair about a black spot on the sun. "Fortress Around Your Heart," from his 1985 solo debut Dream of the Blue Turtles, uses a minefield as a metaphor for repairing a damaged relationship, a chorus Sting has called one of his best.