Ed Sheeran has briefly responded to scathing remarks made by his estranged cousin Jethro on social media. The 35-year-old singer has faced backlash since dropping Macklemore from his tour last month.
Macklemore dropped after Free Palestine speech
Macklemore, the Thrift Shop rapper, had been the concert opener. He shared a Free Palestine speech at a previous gig, which led to Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft, among other stadium owners, threatening to cancel Sheeran's concert unless Macklemore was removed.
Following the axe, Macklemore launched his own mini Free Palestine tour, which has already sold out. Meanwhile, Sheeran has faced criticism for not backing his friend from all quarters, including family members.
Cousin's scathing takedown
In a scathing takedown a couple of weeks ago, Jethro called his famous cousin 'selfish', 'malicious' and 'cunning', adding that he is a 'coward' and a 'bad human' in a lengthy Instagram caption littered with various accusations. Since then, he has also appeared on various platforms, such as the Don Lemon show and Piers Morgan Uncensored, to denounce Sheeran.
Speaking to Morgan, the cousin insisted he wasn't 'jealous' of the global singer and 'witnessed him being a coward for almost 10 years and lying.'
Sheeran's on-stage response
Acknowledging the comments, the music artist recently said on stage at his Atlanta concert that he has received messages from his relative, whom he didn't name. He shared that he hadn't spoken to this 'family member in a very long time', telling the audience, 'you might have seen [him] recently on social media'.
As the Sapphire hitmaker continues his tour, he is doing it alone after all his other openers and support band pulled out of the tour in solidarity with Macklemore and Palestine.
Elsewhere, on SNL UK, Amelia Dimoldenberg aimed fire at Sheeran, whom she has previously interviewed on her Chicken Shop Dates show. On stage, she said: 'I've been incredibly privileged to have done so many interviews with people like Idris Elba, Cher, and even a world-famous redheaded puppet with a hand up his a**e telling him what to say.'
The image behind her flashed Elmo before she delivered the punchline: 'No, the other one', as one of Sheeran flashed up on screen instead.
