‘He’s a coward.’
Jethro Sheeran, Ed Sheeran’s estranged first cousin, has delivered a blunt assessment of the singer’s growing public controversy.
‘I’m just highlighting what he does. He takes advantage of you and then disregards you,’ the 44-year-old told the Daily Mail.
The comments came during a one-hour interview after the little-known rapper, who performs under the name Alonestar, posted a furious statement on Instagram accusing Ed of being a ‘selfish individual with malicious, cunning ways.’
‘It’s all coming out! I’m ashamed of my cousin Ed and what he’s done,’ he added.
Jethro, who could be seen as having a personal grievance against his famous cousin, rejected the suggestion that he was attacking Ed while the singer is under pressure. Instead, he said he had spent years trying to reveal the ‘real’ Ed and believes people are only now prepared to listen.
Ed Sheeran’s first cousin, Jethro Sheeran (pictured), spoke exclusively to the Daily Mail about his famous relative’s public backlash over his tour with Macklemore
Ed and Jethro, pictured here at around 2016, are cousins through their fathers, John and James, who are brothers
Ed, 35, is facing mounting criticism after failing to take a firm public position when his opening act, rapper Macklemore, delivered a pro-Palestine speech during a New Jersey concert on Ed’s Loop world tour.
Macklemore’s remarks drew condemnation from Jewish groups and leaders, as well as figures including pop star Pink and Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of Massachusetts’ Gillette Stadium, where the tour was scheduled to stop. Kraft called for the rapper to be removed from the tour.
Ed ultimately agreed to Kraft’s request. Although the Thinking Out Loud singer said his tour promoter had pressured him to make the decision, he nevertheless lost almost half a million online followers and several of his tour support acts.
Yet one of the most significant consequences may have been the loss of support from people once close to him.
With tears in his eyes, an emotional Ed told his fans while onstage in Philadelphia on September 19: ‘I’m feeling all of my friends and family and people I know abandon me.’
Jethro, however, offered a sharply different interpretation of Ed’s emotional response. ‘Those tears were for himself, not for people that have suffered over centuries on either side,’ he said.
‘I’ve been in rooms where I’ve heard his team talk badly and how to wriggle out of things when I was friends with him,’ he claimed.
The British-born rapper, who said he has been estranged from Ed for seven years, accused The A Team singer of ‘playing both sides’ of the political divide to benefit from both camps.
‘He’s done Robert Kraft’s wedding, probably got paid a few million for that,’ Jethro said. ‘He gets all these brand deals and all these huge PR kind of massive billionaire wedding gigs and things like that, and he just wants to please everyone.
‘He’ll just follow the money.’
Jethro also claimed that some members of the family no longer speak to Ed. He said a relative working on the singer’s tour had told him Ed must have understood that Macklemore, or another supporting act, might use the stage to express political views.
‘He’s been friends with Macklemore for 13 years. He knows his political stance,’ Jethro claimed. ‘So for him to do a Scooby-Doo and go, “What happened there?”
‘Also, every single band, Beoga … are pro-Palestine. Everyone that walked, which is pretty much the whole tour except him, were pro-Palestine. And he knew this.’
Ed acting naive did not surprise Jethro who believes his cousin is ‘sneaky.’
But if you look on social media, the lesser-known cousin has faced some name-calling himself – ‘bitter’ and ‘jealous’ are noticeably prevalent in his comments section.
‘I’m not jealous of his millions because I have a massive catalog of my own that I own,’ he said. ‘I’m certainly not jealous of his hair or his voice or his guitar or his singing because I don’t like his music. I’m more into Tupac and Bob Marley. Certainly not the writer of Shape of You.
‘Fame is evil. I’ve been with him when he started to get famous. You can’t get out. It’s horrible. There’s paparazzi around you. It’s not a good life.’
Growing up, Jethro and Ed bonded over their mutual love of music.
Jethro, seen here in an old throwback photo, shut down claims that he is ‘jealous’ of his more famous cousin, telling the Daily Mail: ‘I’m certainly not jealous of his hair or his voice or his guitar or his singing because I don’t like his music. I’m more into Tupac and Bob Marley. Certainly not the writer of Shape of You’
Growing up, Ed and Jethro – who are nine years apart – bonded over their love of music
‘He is extremely successful. But as my grandma told me, she said, “Jethro, he’s extremely popular, but he’ll never be as cool as you.”‘
Jethro said he was ‘popular’ as a young man and perhaps Ed ‘hates’ him because he was a ‘British martial arts champion,’ ‘good at mixing music,’ ‘break-dancing’ and a skateboarding champion’ in his youth.
By contrast, Ed has openly talked about getting bullied as a kid.
Jethro claimed that part of the reason why his younger cousin became so good at the loop pedal – for which his current tour is named after – is because he ‘had no friends to have a band.’
‘I think he’s quite bitter about his childhood and now he wants his big superstar. He’s realized that money and fame doesn’t fill that empty hole in you,’ Jethro said.
Throwing one more jab at his now-award-winning cousin, he added that Ed ‘was the least likely person in the whole family, both sides, to ever make it. And he made it.’
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And made it he has. Ed is a global superstar, with four Grammy Awards, seven Brit Awards, and an Emmy Award alongside selling over 150 million records worldwide.
‘I’m happy and I’m doing my music, very successful on my own,’ Jethro said in response to his cousin’s accolades, reiterating he is not jealous.
‘I have creative control. I can do whatever I like. I can release when I like. I can do my own artwork. I don’t have to submit to the label.’
Jethro said he is satisfied with how his career turned out because he has ‘creative control’
Jethro alleged that Ed, who has openly talked about being bullied in his youth, had to learn to use a loop pedal to make music because he had no friends with whom to join a band
Aside from Ed, Jethro claimed he has collaborated on music with notable acts like Macy Gray, Chris Brown and has a new song called Destiny with rapper Future.
However, he and Ed stopped working together about seven years ago.
At the time, he claims Ed’s label Warner Music Group demanded that Jethro remove Ed’s name and likeness from a song titled Raise Em Up which was recorded in 2010. It was also featured in the 2013 movie All Stars.
‘I just felt like I was used, abused, and accused. And he discarded me after he got what he wanted,’ Jethro told the Daily Mail.
‘I just want people to know what type of person Ed really is inside. And that’s a coward. And he did this to me. I’ve been feuding with him for seven years.’
During their final conversation nearly a decade ago, Jethro said he angrily told his cousin, ‘You should just keep everything, Ed. You just have everything. Keep all the publishing, all my writing. Say it was you.’ And they never spoke again.
Their feud quietly bubbled behind-the-scenes for a few years until Ed released a track called A Little More, in which he sings: ‘I used to love you / Now every day I hate you just a little more (little more) / Life got better when I lost you.
‘But every day I hate you just a little more and more and more / Blame it on your history / And say it’s not your fault / I can’t call you crazy/ ‘Cause you could be diagnosed.’
‘I just want people to know what type of person Ed really is inside. And that’s a coward,’ Jethro said in his explosive interview with the Daily Mail
Ed and Jethro’s feud over the years has reportedly caused a rift within the Sheeran family (Ed pictured on stage as he addressed the controversy over Macklemore being pulled)
Jethro said family members told him that Ed had shared with them that the diss track was indeed about him, though, of course, we cannot be sure without Ed acknowledging. The pop-blues song also came at a time in which Jethro was dealing with severe mental health issues.
‘When he put out that song,’ Jethro claimed it felt like ‘he was kicking me when I was down.’
‘I was seeing devil’s faces and people with three eyes and melting and I was having a proper breakdown. And then he comes out with that song and just was kind of mocking it to a certain degree … And then he’s writing all these horrible things about me and that’s going to trigger me. So, he triggers me.’
That’s why Jethro said he doesn’t feel guilty about speaking out against Ed amid the Macklemore situation. It’s, in a way, payback.
He’s also set to release his own diss track, titled Eject, in which he’ll further address his ongoing feud with his famous cousin.
The turmoil has divided the Sheeran family terribly, the Daily Mail has learned.
Jethro said he no longer speaks to Ed’s father, John, who is his uncle, and claimed that some of his family is ‘upset with Ed,’ while others continue to get their ‘free Tuscany holidays’ and mooch off of the Perfect crooner.
‘Being a millionaire and having fame doesn’t make you right,’ Jethro said.
‘My true family and all my friends, and everyone knows him, that’s ever met him through me, know what I did for him, and they just think he’s completely out of order and they see him for what he is.’
The feud escalated due to a dispute over money and rights to songs that Ed and Jethro worked on together like Raise Em Up, the one featured in the cover art above
Ed’s representative told the Daily Mail: ‘Jethro Sheeran is being entirely dishonest. He also has no contact or connection with Ed.’ The cousins have been estranged for at least seven years
When asked if he’d ever make amends with Ed, Jethro said he is shutting that door for now but ‘who knows’ about the future.
‘I’m just disappointed and I think that’s the best word. I’ve got no hate for him. I wish him success,’ he said.
‘Remember, when he’s number one and got all this great success, I’ve still got songs with him that I own, so it helps me. And I’m proud of him. I just don’t like him as a person.’
Speaking directly to Ed, Jethro concluded: ‘I wish you the best from my heart, but just far away from me. That’s it.’
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Ed who declined to comment.
The pop star appears to be wanting to move forward with his life. He still has about 17 days left in his Loop tour and shows no signs of calling it off despite public backlash.
Meanwhile, Macklemore announced Thursday that he has launched his own separate Free Palestine tour with dates in Dublin, Paris and London.