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Ellie Goulding has opened up about how she dealt with the false rumors that she cheated on Ed Sheeran with Niall Horan. "It's fascinating how many people are interested in that. It happened nine years ago," she told the Daily Mail per People. "You know, completely honestly, it caused me a lot of trauma, actually."
In 2014, tabloids reported that Sheeran's song "Don't" was inspired by Goulding and fans began to speculate that she cheated on the hitmaker with One Direction member Niall Horan. Goulding continued, "I envy the fact that my friends just spent their 20s having flings and one-night stands and what every 20-something goes through in private. But every single thing I did was written about. I was made to feel like a terrible person and I really struggled with that because I know I'm not."
Earlier this year, Goulding addressed the rumors when a fan commented on one of her posts, "can't believe u cheated on ed with niall but slay fr." Goulding fired back telling the fan, "False!!!! but also slay." The moment of course made headlines and during her interview, Goulding revealed she "was really drunk when I wrote that."
According to the Daily Mail, Goulding feels like the rumors negatively impacted her career and she took a five-year hiatus before releasing Brightest Blue in 2020. "I can laugh about it now but it changed things for me," she said. "I became kind of reclusive. I didn't want to perform. That's why I wrote that comment because every day I get comments about this stupid teenage situation. It was nothing and it was private – and it caused me such a huge amount of grief and I resent it."
She also confirmed that she and Sheeran are on good terms. "It is in the past and we're friends. We're adults." Goulding's fourth album Higher Than Heaven is set to drop on March 24th.