Ed Sheeran shocked his fans when he deleted his Twitter account Monday, leaving many to wonder whether some of the negative comments he received about his surprise cameo on Sunday night’s season 7 premiere of Game of Thrones drove him off the popular social media site.
But the 26-year-old “Shape of You” singer made it clear that those two things were not related in a passionate Instagram post Wednesday.
“Last I’ll say on this,” he began. “I came off Twitter [because] I was always intending to come off Twitter. [It] had nothing to do with what people said about my Game of Thrones cameo [or] because I am in Game of Thrones. Why the hell would I worry what people thought about that? It’s clearly f—ing awesome.”
“Timing was just a coincidence, but believe what you want,” Sheeran continued.
His words came attached to a photo of the singer holding his manager’s hand while on the tarmac at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. “Here is an unrelated picture of me and my wonderful manager riding off into the sunset together,” he joked.
While Sheeran’s handle disappeared off the popular site late Monday and reappeared Tuesday evening with a note — I don’t use this anymore, please follow me on @teddysphotos on instagram, lots of love x — he remains active elsewhere. The day he went dark from Twitter, he posting a photo on Instagram with girlfriend Cherry Seaborn while “climbing mountains in Peru.”
As his Sheerios surely remember, Sheeran has had a complicated relationship with social media and Twitter specifically — telling The Sun in an interview published July 3 that he “can’t read” Twitter anymore due to the negativity.
He clarified his comments on Today days later, explaining ‘I don’t even go on Twitter anymore.’ ”
“I’m just not going to wake up and read something and be like, ‘Well, that’s rude,’ ” he said. “I don’t want to choose to do that anymore. …There’s so much positivity out there. As a human being, we always read the one negative one and ignore the others, and I don’t want to do that. It’s just foolish to do when there’s love out there in the world to look at the negative stuff. I’m just choosing not to read it.”
Sheeran told The Sun that he still finds that a troll can bring him down.
“One comment ruins your day,” he shared. “The head f— for me has been trying to work out why people dislike me so much.”
It’s unknown whether Sheeran’s character on Game of Thrones will return for a future episode. But the British pop star will be back on TV soon — voicing a musician on an upcoming episode of The Simpsons.
He’s also currently on tour in support of his latest album, ÷, which was released in March.
This article originally appeared on People.com
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Where Trump 2.0 Will Differ From 1.0
- How Elon Musk Became a Kingmaker
- The Power—And Limits—of Peer Support
- The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024
- Column: If Optimism Feels Ridiculous Now, Try Hope
- The Future of Climate Action Is Trade Policy
- FX’s Say Nothing Is the Must-Watch Political Thriller of 2024
- Merle Bombardieri Is Helping People Make the Baby Decision
Contact us at letters@time.com