People Picture/REX/ShutterstockJames Blunt says he helped make up "a fancy story" about Ed Sheeran's face injury, which a tabloid had said was the result of a botched gag that involved the two singers and Princess Beatrice.
Sheeran was spotted a few months ago sporting a small scar on his cheek. Last November, The Sun reported Beatrice, Prince William and Prince Harry's cousin, had pretended to "knight" Blunt by tapping him lightly with a sword but swung it back accidentally and cut Sheeran's face.
"Ed was drunk, messing around, and he cut himself," Blunt told the U.K. men's lifestyle magazine ShortList, in comments published Thursday. "We made a fancy story up, people fell for it. It was very embarrassing."
"It's bizarre that people fell for it. I blame him," the "You're Beautiful" singer continued, joking, "He must be desperate—he's trying to sell records."
Blunt said Sheeran did "cut himself" and that he just "patched him up."
"It's made him look prettier," he joked.
Beatrice and Sheeran did not comment.
In January, Sheeran appeared on The Graham Norton Show with his scar. He was asked about the report and said he "got cut up" but declined to comment when asked which royal gave it to him.
He did, however, joke, "It was James Blunt trying to get his pop career back."
"I have no idea how that story came out," Sheeran said. "I have no idea, 'cause, like, it was so tight. And for like two weeks afterwards, I had this huge gash on my face and people would be like, 'Oh, what happened?' And you'd be like, 'Uh, I fell.' And then suddenly, it came out, the alleged [story]."