Ed Sheeran reluctant to become ‘poster boy’ for bulimia but stresses eating disorders aren’t problems ‘just for one gender’

Ed Sheeran has spoken candidly about his disordered eating and wanting to keep his weight ‘in check.’

The singer-songwriter, 32, first spoke about his struggles in March, telling Rolling Stone that he would compare himself to other artists, which led to body insecurities.

After collaborating with the likes of Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber, Ed felt that they had ‘fantastic figures’ and he was ‘uncomfortable’ in himself.

As a result, he would engage in bingeing and purging behaviours, commonly associated with bulimia nervosa, which is a type of eating disorder where people go through periods of eating a lot of food in a short space of time and then making themselves sick, using laxatives, or doing excessive exercise.

However, Ed is keen not to become the ‘poster boy’ for the mental illness.

Appearing on CBS Sunday Morning, the Thinking Out Loud hitmaker spoke to Seth Doane about staying in shape and looking after himself.

Ed Sheeran got candid about his disordered eating (Picture: CBS)

He told host Seth Doane that he keeps his weight ‘in check’ (Picture: CBS)

‘I keep my weight in check now because I do a lot of exercise, but I’ve just always been a fat bloke’, he began.

The host was quick to correct him: ‘You’re not fat.’

Ed went on to explain: ‘Well, no, because I keep it in check. I did, like, an hour and a half of exercise this morning and I’ll be on stage for another two hours today.

‘I watch what I eat and I exercise a lot and I try to not binge as much.’

On his disordered eating behaviours, Ed added: ‘I just don’t want to turn into the poster boy for it, you know?

The A Team vocalist previously felt ‘mad uncomfortable’ talking about his body image battle (Picture: CBS)

He would compare himself to the likes of Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes (Picture: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

Ed was envious of their ‘fantastic figures’ (Picture: Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

‘I think what is important about speaking about it is letting people know that it is not a problem that is just for one gender.’

When the presenter probed: ‘You’re talking about bulimia?’, Ed clarified: ‘Yeah.’

Previously, Ed said his eating was a ‘real problem.’

The A Team singer said that it had been difficult to speak about his struggles because of the shame associated with them.

‘There’s certain things that, as a man talking about them, I feel mad uncomfortable,’ he told Rolling Stone.

But, this is what encouraged him to open up.

The singer recently emerged victorious in a trial claiming he ripped off a Marvin Gaye hit (Picture: Reuters)

‘It’s good to be honest… because so many [men] do the same thing and hide it.’

Elsewhere in his CBS chat, Ed addressed his recent copyright lawsuit.

The Grammy-winning star was in court last week and emerged victorious after being accused of ripping off Marvin Gaye’s classic, Let’s Get It On.

Ed told Seth that lawsuits ‘come with the territory’ of what he does.

‘When they say, “there’s a hit, there’s a writ,” it’s true. Every single hit.

‘It’s four chords that get used in pop songs and there’s however many notes, eight notes, or whatever. And there are 60,000 songs released every single day.

Ed admits he gets ‘riled up’ when people accuse musicians of copying other tunes, as there are only so many chords (Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

‘If you just think mathematically, the likelihood of this song having the same chords as this song, you are going to get this with every single pop song from now on. Unless it just stops, but I don’t think it does.’

He added that it’s a ‘big money business’ to ‘take things to court’ but ‘every single musician you speak to’ will agree with him.

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‘You can only get caught out if you’ve done something wrong and I have not done something wrong,’ he said defiantly. ‘I’m not lying here.’

‘I use four chords that are very common to use and they sound like lots of songs.

‘It riles me up, man. And I’m never allowed to say anything, but there’s so much to say.’

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Ed tries not to ‘binge as much’ now.