Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have been friends just as long as they have been collaborators.
The musicians’ friendship began in 2012, the same year they debuted their first duet, “Everything Has Changed,” on Swift’s Red album. They later appeared in the June 2013 music video for the song alongside child actors portraying younger versions of themselves.
Flash forward 10 years, Swift was featured on Sheeran’s February 2022 track “The Joker And the Queen.” The song was a full-circle moment for the celebrity pals, as Ava Ames and Jack Lewis — the “Everything Has Changed” child actors — once again portrayed versions of Sheeran and Swift in the music video.
“She would be there if everything ended for me,” Sheeran told Rolling Stone in March 2017. “Taylor is kind of an anomaly in that sense. She’s omnipresent because she’s the most famous woman in the world, so she can’t make the decision to not be in the press. I always stick up for Taylor.”
Scroll below to see the best moments from Swift and Sheeran’s friendship:
October 2012
Two months after the release of “Everything Has Changed,” Swift and Sheeran performed the track for the first time at the 2012 Jingle Ball that December.
March 2013
Sheeran served as Swift’s opening act for the North American of her Red tour. The same month the two hit the road, Sheeran shut down romantic speculation between him and the “All Too Well” singer.
He told New Zealand’s TVNZ that while he had spent the night in a hotel room with Swift, he was only showing her new music. “I did stay there ’til four and I did leave in the same clothes, but I was playing her my new record. It was strictly that kind of thing,” he clarified. “Literally, I went in there and we passed the guitar back and forth and played songs to each other.”
Sheeran went on to joke: “The thing that impressed me with the media is that because they wrote about it, my mates believed it. And my mates are texting me being like, ‘Is it true?’ So I said it wasn’t but the fact that people can believe it makes me feel like a bit of a stud, you know?”
August 2013
Swift poked fun at her infamous 2009 VMAs moment with Kanye West in message she wrote on a jar of jam she gifted Sheeran for his birthday. “Yo Ed — I’m really 4 you and I’m gonna let u finish but this is the best JAM OF ALL TIME,” the jar read.
June 2014
After many speculated Sheeran’s song “Don’t” was about a possible romantic betrayal from Swift, he clarified in an interview with Parade Magazine that the tune was “about someone who’s well known, but not Taylor.” The article noted that the song was also rumored to be about Ellie Goulding.
December 2014
Swift and Sheeran were among many celebrity performers at the 2014 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Though they performed their respective tracks “Blank Space” and “Thinking Out Loud” separately, they stood together during the show’s curtain call.
February 2016
Swift jumped up from her seat to congratulate Sheeran after he beat her for Song of the Year at the 2016 Grammys. Days later, she penned a sweet birthday tribute for her friend via Instagram.
“I don’t think he ever knew how inspired I was by his drive and passion to constantly create new art,” Swift wrote. “But it’s his 25th birthday today, so I’m saying it now. You deserve everything you have, and everything you will continue to achieve, Ed.”
July 2016
Neighbors of Swift’s Rhode Island residence captured audio of the BFFs duetting Britney Spears’ “… Baby One More Time” at her 2016 Fourth of July party.
January 2017
“Taylor was never the popular kid in school. I was never the popular kid in school,” Sheeran told British GQ of his ad Swift’s career successes. “Then you get to the point when you become the most popular kid in school — and we both take it a bit too far.”
He continued: “She wants to be the biggest female artist in the world and I want to be the biggest male artist in the world. It also comes from always being told that you can’t do something and being like, ‘F–k you. I can.’”
April 2017
Swift paid tribute to Sheeran in an essay for that year’s Time Magazine‘s “100 Most Influential People” edition.
“A few years ago, in a rare moment of admitting feeling defeated, Ed said to me, ‘I’m never going to win a Grammy.’ ‘Yes, you are,’ I said. ‘You’re going to sweep the whole thing one of these years,’” she wrote. “It was a few weeks later when he met me in a dance-shoe store in London, where I was picking out rehearsal outfits, and said, ‘You have to hear this.’ It was a song he’d just finished called ‘Thinking Out Loud,’ which went on to win Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2016.”
Swift went on to state that Sheeran is “protected by an impenetrable and ever-present armor of enthusiasm that has helped him endure any setback, letdown or underestimation.”
November 2017
The pair collaborated once more on Swift’s sixth studio album, Reputation, on the track “Endgame,” which also featured Future. Just like they did with “Everything Has Changed” the friends performed “Endgame” for the first time at that years’ iHeartRadio Jingle Ball.
Both Sheeran and Future appeared alongside Swift in the song’s music video released in January 2018.
September 2018
Swift and Sheeran poked fun at the fact they were both nominated in the same category for that year’s American Music Awards in a hilarious Instagram video.
“Taylor, the AMA nominations came out. It’s me, you and Drake,” Sheeran told Swift. They each responded by telling the other, “You’re going to win,” before admitting they think “Drake’s going to win.”
Filmed while taking a hike together, Swift jokingly asked Sheeran, “It’s called exercise. Have you ever done cardio? Strumming a guitar doesn’t count.”
July 2019
After Swift’s masters were purchased by Scooter Braun, fans criticized Sheeran for not immediately speaking out in Swift’s defense. He eventually broke his silence via Instagram after a fan came to his defense in a post’s comments section.
“Just because he didn’t post anything it doesn’t mean he is not supporting her, maybe he’s talking with her right now, who knows,” the user wrote, to which Sheeran replied, “I have been speaking directly to her, like I always do.”
November 2021
A new version of “Everything Has Changed” was featured on Swift’s rerecorded version of Red. Sheeran was also featured on one of the album’s vault tracks titled “Run.”
February 2022
“Joker And The Queen” debuted.
August 2023
Following the announcement of the 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Sheeran addressed fan speculation regarding whether he and Swift had already rerecorded “Endgame” for Reputation (Taylor’s Version).
“No, I haven’t. No. No,” he said on Andy Cohen’s “Deep & Shallow” Sirius XM podcast, confirming that they will.
