Ellie Goulding Denies She Was Ever Dating Ed Sheeran

Ellie Goulding wants to clear a few things up: Yes, she went on a few dates with One Direction's Niall Horan, but, according to her Elle cover story, she never seriously dated Ed Sheeran.

"I did go on a few dates with Niall but I was never in a relationship with Ed," the "Love Me Like You Do" singer tells the magazine. "I have absolutely no idea where that came from and why it was turned into such a big thing. I find it so frustrating that female musicians are constantly defined by the men they have or haven't dated. It's something I've talked about with [Taylor Swift] a lot. She definitely feels that. She gets bothered by it. It's like, you can be a great artist, you can write great songs, but the thing that everyone is going to talk about is some relationship they think you have had or not had. It's definitely something we both think happens to female artists over male artists."

The remarks may surprise some, since Sheeran's hit song "Don't" is rumored to be about "losing" Goulding to Horan. For a while, it seemed like Sheeran himself confirmed that, but Sheeran later said he was misquoted.