Ed Sheeran breaks royal rules for touching Prince Charles while receiving MBE

Yesterday (7 December) was a big day for singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran after he was awarded MBE by the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace.

The 26-year-old pop star's special moment was clouded by an embarrassing gaffe on his part, as he broke royal protocol by touching Prince Charles on the arm.

Instead of simply just shaking his hand, Sheeran grabbed onto the royal's arm with his other hand, which crosses the line in terms of royal rules.

Sheeran, who counts Taylor Swift as a close pal, was pictured reaching out and grabbing the future king's arm during the Investiture ceremony. He brushed off his error however, insisting that he had a good chat with Charles, 68.

The singer said: "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.

"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," he added.

Proving he is still as humble as ever, Sheeran credits his success to "persistence" rather than talent.

He continued: "I think it's persistence. I don't have a vast amount of talent compared to other people.

"I think talent is like 30% of it and persistence, drive and self-belief are the other ones, which I guess are all the same thing."

The popular artist previously claimed that he would sing at fellow redhead Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle in May 2018. "Yeah, why not?!" he said of the idea.

He does have some experience as a wedding singer, previously crashing the Sydney wedding of Kya and Matt Debono in 2015 to perform his romantic hit Thinking Out Loud for their first dance.