- Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have been best buds since they toured together in 2012 and have collaborated on multiple songs together.
- Sources claim that Ed and Taylor’s friendship has been “strained” since she released The Life of a Showgirl shortly after his album, Play.
- The insider adds that the “Shape of You” singer is “understandably peeved” at Taylor’s album blocking his on the charts.
Could there be trouble between Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran? According to sources, their longtime friendship is “strained” thanks to some drama surrounding their respective album releases. Of course, we all know Taylor dropped her twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl, on October 3, and Ed’s eighth album, Play, was released a few weeks prior on September 12.
Per a new report from the Daily Mail, a music industry source claimed that “The A Team” hitmaker was “peeved” that TLOAS blocked his album from the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 and U.K. album charts. Ed’s album reportedly hit No. 1 the week it was released, but as soon as TLOAS dropped, he was bumped down the chart as Taylor rose to the top.
“Ed takes these things really seriously, and carefully plans his album releases. He announced his album with four months’ notice, but then Taylor announced hers for just two weeks after,” the insider shared, adding that the move “left his team scrabbling to get as much attention before hers dropped. He was very much put out and understandably peeved.”
They continued, “It is not the first time that Taylor has done something like this. She’s got form.” According to the outlet, Taylor released a U.K.-exclusive vinyl variant of The Tortured Poets Department the same week Charli XCX released brat, which blocked the album from claiming the No. 1 spot.
Ed spoke on other artists dropping albums around the same time as his during his Divide era in 2017, telling BBC, “Everyone I was scared of releasing albums around me released them all last year—people like Beyoncé and The Weeknd and Bruno Mars.”
He added, “Taylor isn’t going to be releasing until probably the end of this year—Christmas is the smartest time to release because that’s when everyone buys records.”
The showgirl recently spoke about her 12-year friendship with Ed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon when she revealed she forgot to tell him about her engagement to Travis Kelce.
“He doesn’t have a phone,” Taylor said of Ed during the October 6 episode. “You have to email him. If you want to set up a FaceTime, he has to find an iPad. They have to give it to him like he’s a child that you give the iPad to.”
She continued, “This is one of my absolute favorite people on the planet. When the news came out, I was like, ‘We forgot to call Ed! Oh no!’ He’s like family. I love him. But he doesn’t have a phone.”
Ed later confirmed this anecdote, commenting on a clip of the interview posted to TikTok with, “Hello from my allotted iPad time, this is factual.”
Chatter of their rumored rift comes hot off Taylor’s record-breaking sales for The Life of a Showgirl, as she sold 4 million physical albums within the first seven days of its release.
She celebrated the milestone on Instagram, writing, in part, “I have 4 million thank you’s I want to send to the fans, and 4 million reasons to feel even more proud of this album than I already was.”
