Ed Sheeran candidly opens up about his decade long friendship with Taylor Swift

Ed Sheeran has opened up about his decade-long friendship with Taylor Swift in a new interview.

The British musician, 32, told Zane Lowe on his Apple Music podcast that he often confides in his longtime friend, 33, about everything from his career to personal issues.

He said, “I have long, long, long conversations with Taylor about things just because I feel like she’s one of the few people who really understands where I’m at.”

Before explaining how similar they are, “Because she’s a solo artist, they’re stadiums.”

Ed went on to tell the host that he and the Bad Blood singer had in fact just spent 90 minutes catching up prior to the interview.

Bosom buddies: The British musician, 32, told Zane Lowe on his Apple Music podcast that he often confides in his old friend, 33, about everything from his career to personal issues

He said, “We were just — everything we thought about we talked about, I mean, that’s kind of therapy in itself too, because you’re actually talking to someone who really gets it.”

“That has all the things that you feel and are insecure about and how other people treat you or how your family treats you, how your friends treat you, she’s actually in the same sphere,” he continued.

The duo have been friends for 10 years and Ed has starred on stage with the star and also appeared on her album Red (Taylor’s Version).

The interview comes after Ed was cleared of charges related to his 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud.” ripped off Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get it On” in Manhattan federal court on Thursday.

He had previously threatened to leave the music industry if found guilty of ripping off Gaye’s classic love ballad.

Ed, who strongly denied the accusation that his hit song stole fundamental musical elements from Marvin’s song, had faced a £79 million lawsuit brought by the heirs of the song’s co-writer, Ed Townsend .

But he heard a verdict Thursday that he was free after a jury of three men and four women deliberated for less than three hours before reaching their decision.

Out of court, Ed – who is worth £158 million – said: ‘I’m just a guy with a guitar who likes to write music for people to enjoy. I am and will not allow myself to be a piggy bank.”

Dear friends: Ed went on to tell the host that he and the Bad Blood singer had in fact just spent 90 minutes catching up prior to the interview (pictured in 2014)

Victorious: The interview comes after Ed was acquitted of charges that his 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud” ripped off Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get it On” in Manhattan federal court on Thursday

Ed’s lawyer had said the case ‘should never have been brought’, and the singer put his career on the line by saying during the trial that he would be ‘done’ with music if found guilty.

The copyright lawsuit was first brought in 2018 by the estate of the late Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the 1973 R&B classic with Gaye.

It said that Ed and his co-writer Amy Wadge “copied and exploited the composition of Let’s Get It On, without permission or credit,” copying various elements, including the “melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing vocals, tempo, syncope and looping’.

On Friday, Ed said he feels “lighter” now that his new album Subtract is “out in the world” and people are connecting with it “on such a deep and meaningful level.”

The album is the latest in his series of mathematical symbols and was written against a backdrop of challenging events in his life last year, including the diagnosis of a tumor in his wife Cherry Seaborn while she was pregnant, the death of his close friend Jamal Edwards and a copyright battle over his 2017 hit Shape Of You.

The global star has said he used the album to channel the intense emotions that surfaced from this difficult time, describing the songwriting process as his “therapy.”