Ed Sheeran had a hours-long chat with his friend Taylor Swift after her engagement to Travis Kelsey — despite rumors of a falling out between him and the “Blank Space” songstress.
“I’m not self-conscious about my relationship with her,” Sheeran told Access Hollywood in a new interview.
“We’ve been friends for years,” he added. “We’re very close and when we meet we look at each other and when we see each other we pick up where we left off.”
Sheeran apparently learned of Swift’s engagement with the rest of the world due to the fact that Swift limits her cell phone and social media use, but also addressed speculation that their friendship may have been “strained” after Swift released her album “The Life of a Showgirl” just weeks after he released “Play.”
“The way I look at it is that me and Taylor are buddies and I’m going to meet her,” he told the outlet.
“I met her a week after it happened, so I interviewed her, and then I met her and spoke to you directly,” he said.
He added that when he saw the “Cruel Summer” singer, they were “like four hours of catch-up. It wasn’t like, I don’t know, you know what I mean? It was life.”
Sheeran admitted he doesn’t have access to a cell phone and lamented the impact social media has had on relationships.
“I feel like I kind of want to stay in touch with everyone. It’s like a real human connection is lost,” he said.
Page Six reached out to a representative for Swift.
News of Swift’s engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Kelce broke in August, and the two shared the big news on Instagram.
A few days later, before Sheeran appeared at a SiriuxSM Small Stage Series concert in New York City, Andy Cohen asked him how he found out about his longtime friend’s engagement.
“Instagram,” the “Shape of You” hitmaker replied.
“Instagram? Just like everyone else? Didn’t you get any DMs beforehand?” an incredulous Cohen asked, to which Sheeran simply replied, “No.”
Sheeran, 34, then released his eighth album on September 12th, followed by Swift’s follow-up ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ on October 3rd.
Music industry insiders told the Daily Mail in October that they were “frustrated” by Taylor Swift’s timing.
“Ed takes these things very seriously and is carefully planning the release of the album,” a source told the outlet last month.
“He put out his album four months ago, and then Taylor put out hers just two weeks later.”
A source said, “As a result, his team has to work hard to get as much attention as possible before her attention falls off.”
“He was very frustrated and understandably frustrated,” they claimed. “It’s not the first time Taylor has done something like this. She’s on a roll.”
Sheeran previously revealed that he holds long catch-up sessions with Swift whenever possible. “I see her about four times a year,” he said on “Call Her Daddy” in April.
The “Beautiful People” singer revealed that her friends “really sit down and catch up for six hours.”
“I think that’s a really good way to go about it,” he said.
