Ed Sheeran has suffered another blow after he is forced to miss his gran's funeral due to his copyright trial, sources say.
It comes after the hitmaker's grandmother Anne ‘Nancy’ Sheeran will be laid to rest today in Ireland after she passed away aged 98.
Ed, 32, penned the song Nancy Mulligan for his third album Divide, about his grandma.
The hit tune documents Anne's romance with Ed's grandfather William, despite coming from different religious backgrounds.
Now, it is believed he will have to watch the funeral service online because he is in New York for a high-profile copyright trial.
The musician has been sued by the heirs of the late Ed Townsend, who is credited as having co-written Marvin Gaye's song Let's Get It On released in 1973.
It has been claimed that Sheeran's award-winning song Thinking Out Loud plagiarised harmonic progressions as well as melodic and rhythmic elements.
Ed's defence instead argue that his song - which was released in 2014 and later went on to win two Grammy Awards - was created "without copying" Let's Get It On.
Townsend's estate are said to be seeking a share of the profits from Sheeran's song.
The ongoing trial began on April 24 at the Manhattan Federal Court and it has continued at the court in New York this week.
As reported by the MailOnline, Ed has suggested he will quit music if he loses the case. He said about the prospect of losing: "If that happens, I'm done, I'm stopping."
"I find it really insulting to devote my whole life to being a performer and a songwriter and have someone diminish it," he added when speaking to the court.
Ed's grandmother and her late husband William Sheeran raised eight children and had 23 grandchildren.
In 2017, Anne gushed over her grandson's musical talents as his song Nancy Mulligan gained popularity.
She told RTE at the time of Ed: "He was lovely as a kid and he came every year on holidays once we moved here."
Nancy, who was 92 at the time of the interview, added: "I never think of him as famous, I have to say.
"He's exactly the same as he always was – if anything he visits and it's very rare because he's always working and when you think we was visiting from the age of 14, I mean you have to feel sorry for him, you know he's so tired but he loved it."
Ed's father John is expected to attend the funeral at St Patrick’s Church, Monaseed, Gorey.
The Mirror has contacted Ed Sheeran's representative for comment.
