Ed Sheeran had no idea who Princess Beatrice was when they first met.
The 26-year-old singer hit the headlines last November after he was reportedly struck by the 28-year-old royal as she was pretending to ‘knight’ fellow musician James Blunt at a party at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, but the flame-haired hunk has admitted the first time he spoke with Beatrice he was non the wiser that she was royalty.
He said: "I was chatting all night to this girl, telling her about my home and telling her about my family. Then in the morning I found out who she was.
"So I made friends with her from her just being nice. That’s like six years ago. So then we kept in touch.
"They are really, really sweet girls, I really like that family."
While the ‘Shape of You’ hitmaker is great friends with Beatrice and her 26-year-old sister Eugenie – who are the grandchildren of Queen Elizabeth – he insists hanging out with royals and A-listers is not normal for him and he prefers to spend time with his pals at home in Suffolk, England.
He told The Sun newspaper: "My main friendship group is my Suffolk mates.
"I do find it crazy the type of people that want to hang out and I take every opportunity as it comes.
"But I also take every opportunity as if it is the last time it’s going to happen.
"I am a boy from Suffolk, my friends are people from Suffolk and eventually I will end up in that group and that will be me."
Ed previously said taking the cut to the head hasn’t put him off hanging out with royalty as he recently said he’d "have a lot of fun" with Prince Harry.
Asked to name candidates for an imaginary squad, Ed said: "Harry Windsor, because I don’t really know him that well but I think I’d have a lot of fun with him."
Ed Sheeran didn’t know who Princess Beatrice was
