Ed Sheeran Agrees Taylor Swift Is the Carole King to His James Taylor: ‘It’s Very Similar to a Sibling’

To the rest of the world, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift are two of the most famous and successful musicians alive — but to each other, they’re just brother and sis.

In a new podcast interview with The Hollywood Reporter posted Monday (Dec. 8), the British singer-songwriter opened up about his close bond with the pop superstar, who once told Rolling Stone that her frequent duet partner was “the James Taylor to my Carole King.” “Obviously, we’re the opposite sex, and we’re from different countries and cultures, but I feel very intertwined creatively with her,” Sheeran began.

“I do really agree with the James Taylor and Carole King thing,” he continued. “We have very transient lives … I do see her from time to time. And when we see [each other], you just lock back in and reconnect, and it’s like no time has passed. It’s very similar to a sibling.”

Swift first met Sheeran in the early 2010s, writing Red fan-favorite “Everything Has Changed” on the former’s backyard trampoline after their teams connected them. Her full quote to Rolling Stone about their friendship in 2017 was, “We’ve gotten matching Scottish folds, made each other arts and crafts Christmas presents, vacationed with our families and had each other’s backs … He is the James Taylor to my Carole King, and I can’t imagine a time when he wouldn’t be.”

The Eras Tour headliner has since echoed that sentiment numerous times over the years, most recently telling Jimmy Fallon that Sheeran was “like family” while recounting the hilarious story of how she’d forgotten to tell her friend that she’d gotten engaged to Travis Kelce in August. “He doesn’t have a phone,” Swift said. “This is one of my absolute favorite people on the planet, and the news came out, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, we forgot to call Ed!’”

After Sheeran’s lack of modern tech led to his absence on Swift’s post-engagement call list, though, the two had a “four-hour catchup,” as revealed by the Brit in a recent Access Hollywood interview.

“I’m not self-conscious about my relationship with her,” he said in November. “We’ve been friends for many years. We’re super close, and we see each other when we see each other. And when we see each other, we lock back into where we left off.”