Ed Sheeran wishes his grandad was alive to see him collect his MBE.

Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran

The 'Shape of You' hitmaker was recently awarded the honour for his services to music, and Ed has revealed his grandad would have loved to have seen him receive the award at Buckingham Palace.

Speaking to The Sun newspaper, Ed said: "My grandad was a huge royalist, he had painted plates of all the Royal Family.

"He passed away a couple of years ago and as soon as I got it I thought, 'I wish my grandad had seen that'."

Despite this, Ed previously admitted he had no idea who Princess Beatrice was when they first met.

The 26-year-old singer hit the headlines last November after he claimed to have been struck by the royal as she was pretending to 'knight' fellow musician James Blunt at a party at the Royal Lodge in Windsor.

But the flame-haired hunk admitted the first time he spoke with Beatrice, he had no idea that she was part of the British royal family.

He said: "I was chatting all night to this girl, telling her about my home and telling her about my family. Then in the morning I found out who she was.

"So I made friends with her from her just being nice. That's like six years ago. So then we kept in touch. They are really, really sweet girls, I really like that family."