Er, that’s a touch too familiar for royalty, Ed
HE may have covered his many tattoos and treated himself to a shave, but it seems Ed Sheeran still wasn’t quite ready to mix in the highest circles.
The chart-topper breached royal protocol while receiving his MBE from Prince Charles yesterday, by touching the future king’s arm. Etiquette dictates that touching should not go beyond a formal handshake.
But Sheeran, 26, put his left hand on the prince’s arm as they shook hands. The normally scruffy singer, looking smart in a morning suit, said about his brief chat with Charles: ‘He was asking me if I was still selling lots of records and I told him I’ve got a concert in New York tomorrow, and he was quite surprised I was flying after this.’
Sheeran, who received his MBE for his services to music and charity, has worked with a range of charities, including East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices – of which he is an ambassador and which has the Duchess of Cambridge as its royal patron.
He said: ‘My grandfather was a massive royalist, he had all the commemorative plates and stuff, and he died on this day four years ago, so it’s actually quite a nice full circle thing, I guess he’d be pretty proud.’
Sheeran, whose hits include Thinking Out Loud and Shape Of You, said he would like to perform the first song at Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle – but had not yet been asked. When quizzed if he would like to do it, he replied with a grin, ‘Yeah, why not.’
He is not the first famous face to fall foul of the royal rules. In 2009, then first lady Michelle Obama put her arm around the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Unexpectedly, the Queen returned the gesture. And in 2014 basketball star LeBron James put his arm around the Duchess of Cambridge.