Ed Sheeran Misses Grandmother's Funeral amid 'Thinking Out Loud' Copyright Trial in N.Y.C.

Ed Sheeran's grandmother was laid to rest in Ireland on Wednesday, but the singer wasn't in attendance at the funeral as he continued to fight a copyright lawsuit in New York City.

Sheeran, 32, revealed that his relative's funeral was taking place on Wednesday during a conversation with Gayle King at the premiere of his Disney+ docuseries, Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All, in New York City on Tuesday.

"I've got the documentary coming out tomorrow, I've got the album coming out on Friday, I start my tour on Saturday, my grandmother's funeral's tomorrow, I'm still in this court case," Sheeran said of the busy week he has ahead of him.

On Wednesday, the day of the funeral, the "Eyes Closed" singer spent his sixth day in court as part of an ongoing trial alleging copyright infringement related to his 2014 hit "Thinking Out Loud."

Representatives for Sheeran did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

The suit, which was launched by Structured Asset Sales — who purchased a third of the shares of the song from the family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote "Let's Get It On" with Marvin Gaye, in 2018 — alleges that Sheeran's hit took elements directly from Gaye's 1973 song.

On Tuesday, the singer made headlines as he revealed on the stand that he would not continue his music career if he is found guilty of copyright infringement over the song.

"If that happens, I'm done, I'm stopping," Sheeran said.

He added, "I find it to be really insulting. I work really hard to be where I'm at."

During his six days in court, Sheeran has told the court about his songwriting process, revealing more about "Thinking Out Loud" in particular.

He shared that the single was a "very collaborative" process between him and co-writer Amy Wadge. Sheeran recalled being inspired to create the song after hearing Wadge "mumbling" the chords as he got ready to go to dinner and said he knew they needed to write a song to them.

The lyrics were inspired by their personal struggles as Sheeran's grandmother had been diagnosed with cancer, his "grandad" had died, and Wadge was going through a family illness, he said.

Sheeran also performed part of the song to demonstrate to the court how it evolved from what its original chorus was — which was "I'm singing out loud," rather than "I'm thinking out loud."

On Tuesday, his co-writer took the stand and mirrored Sheeran's frustration over the allegations.

"It was pretty devastating and pretty frightening because it's something we did not do," Wadge said.

During his conversation with King at Tuesday's premiere, Sheeran reflected on the lessons he learned from the difficult year the docuseries portrays, during which he learned of his wife Cherry Seaborn's cancer diagnosis and struggled with the sudden death of his best friend Jamal Edwards.

"Life just always throws curve balls at you," he said of 2022, while also referring to the series of commitments he has this week, including appearing in court, releasing a new album and embarking on a new tour, all while missing his relative's funeral overseas.

"This is just another point of life where life is happening. But that doesn't mean that 2023 is a write-off either. There's going to be amazing things that happen this year, too. So, yeah, I think life is just — there's always something going on."

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Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All is now streaming on Disney+.