Nearly 10 years after Ed Sheeran released “Don’t,” long rumored to be about Ellie Goulding cheating on him with Niall Horan, the “Slow Hands” singer gave a subtle update on where they stand.

Ed Sheeran never needed to see Niall Horan as a threat, after all.

Nearly 10 years after Ed released “Don’t” in 2014, which was rumored at the time to be about Ellie Goulding cheating on him with the One Direction member, he and Niall proved the hatchet has long been buried.

Sharing a series of never-before-seen photos on his Instagram account @teddysoldphone, Ed included a number of photos of Niall, one of which was a selfie of the pair in 2014 with the caption “me and Niall in Vegas”.

The “Slow Hands” singer, for his part, showed admiration for the throwback pictures, and later reshared the selfie to his story the same day, tagging Ed’s main account in the post, writing, “Love ya.”

Indeed, Ed’s new account—which he explained includes decades-old photos from an old phone he turned back on during a songwriting legal battle he later won—included not only a few photos of Niall, but also one of Ellie alongside him and Bruno Mars backstage amid the Moonshine Jungle Tour in 2013.

“With Bruno and Ellie at their gig,” Ed captioned the post alongside a photo of the three sitting on a sofa. “Lots of booze and cigarettes.”

Given the photos were taken around the time “Don’t” dropped, fans were quick to express their shock. As one fan cheekily wrote under the selfie Ed shared of he and Niall, “Hey siri play don’t by ed sheeran.”

Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images/Taylor Hill/FilmMagic /River Callaway/Variety via Getty Images

In terms of the speculation about an alleged affair, Ellie has maintained on several occasions that she and Ed “never” dated. However, “Don’t” included a reference to her 2013 song “Burn,” and to an affair.

“You didn’t need to take him to bed, that’s all / And I never saw him as a threat / Until you disappeared with him to have sex, of course,” Ed sang in the track. “It’s not like we were both on tour / We were staying on the same f–king hotel floor.”

For his part, Ed previously said he was dating Ellie in 2013, but later maintained he “never” confirmed “Don’t” was about her and Niall.

“One of the newspapers in England just printed that it was confirmed when it never was,” he told Entertainment Weekly in 2015 about the inspiration for the song, noting that his team had the article taken down. “I never actually confirmed it.”

While Ed never clarified who the song was about, he emphasized he was able to get over his anger through writing the song.

Ed Sheeran/Instagram

“For me, it needed to be done,” he added. “It didn’t necessarily have to go on the album, but it definitely needed to be written.”

In the last few years, it seems as though all parties have moved on to greener pastures—with Ed even joining Niall on stage during his most recent tour last August. However, Ellie recently admitted the scandal left some damage for her.

“I can laugh about it now but it changed things for me,” Ellie admitted to the Daily Mail in 2023. “Every day I get comments about this stupid teenage situation. It was nothing and it was private—and it caused me such a huge amount of grief and I resent it.”