AceShowbiz - Ed Sheeran claims the death of his best friend Jamal Edwards was the start of his adult life. The 32-year-old pop megastar was heartbroken when the SBTV founder - who discovered the "Thinking Out Loud" hitmaker - died within weeks of him losing another pal in cricketing legend Shane Warne last year.

The Grammy winner said how the day he started grieving his beloved friend was the day "real-life s***" started and his youth ended. "The one thing I've realised is the moment death happens, a real close, close death, is when you become an adult. That's when adulting begins, that's when real-life s*** begins," Ed is quoted by the Daily Mirror newspaper as saying during an interview for exercise bike brand Peloton.

The "Bad Habits" hitmaker admits he's lucky to have escaped great loss until he was actually an adult. He added, "You can be six and go through that and it's just cruel that that is the end of your youth."

Since the deaths of his pals, Ed has been able to be there for friends and family, including his mother Imogen, and understand whenever they open up about their losses. He explained, "I am very fortunate that I lived a large part of my life without experiencing what it's like."

"And when it happens, I had friends that had closed up about their parents dying. And as soon as this happened, I found them opening up to me. I found my mum opening up to me about losses in her life that she's never spoken to me about."

On grieving with his two-year-old daughter Lyra - with whom he has with wife Cherry Seaborn - around, he said, "Throughout sadness with kids, they're having a great time. But also it's just their world. You know, she's sad, she's sad, she's happy, she's happy, but you have to come along for the ride."

Ed - who also has 13-month-old Jupiter with his spouse - channelled his grief into his latest LP "Subtract", and he's promised to release some of the more depressing songs that didn't make the album. He added, "All the other music made for 'Subtract' is still there. I don't know if it turns into 'Subtracted' or something else but it's gonna see the light of day."

Not only was Ed dealing with the two big losses in his life, but his wife discovered she had a tumour while she was pregnant with their youngest daughter.