Running is often touted as the simplest exercise to boost heart health, but one woman’s heart skipped a beat for an entirely different reason during her jog. In mid-September 2024, she was on her usual morning run along a canal when she spotted none other than Ed Sheeran sitting on a boat nearby. Sheeran, who was in the middle of filming a new video, noticed her too—and paused the shoot to serenade her with a love song. The unexpected and heartwarming moment was caught on camera by Sheeran's crew and later shared on his Instagram (@teddysphotos).
Ed Sheeran performs onstage during the 58th Academy Of Country Music Awards at The Ford Center on May 11, 2023 in Texas. (Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Theo Wargo)
The sweet gesture has sparked a wave of excitement, with fans now hoping to “accidentally” bump into the "Shape of You" singer on their morning runs. Sheeran captioned the Instagram reel, "Was filming a video on the canal today, played a request. If anyone knows the runner lemme know so we can have their POV video for the lols." The clip, which has already racked up over 3 million likes, shows the jogger meeting Sheeran's gaze as he waves and asks, "Any request?"
English singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran smiles on the court before Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final in Boston, Massachusetts. (Image Source: Getty Images | Photo By Winslow Townson)
The woman slows down and says, “Can you do ‘Tenerife Sea’?” Sheeran wholeheartedly accepts the request and starts strumming the strings of his acoustic guitar. Meanwhile, the jogger scoops out her mobile phone from inside the purse and records the singer playing exclusively for her. He keeps on playing and singing, and she keeps on walking side-by-side matching the speed of the boat.
Oblivious of the fact that he’s a music star, Sheeran keeps on performing the song, keeping his eyes on the ardent fan, while his tattooed arm plucks on the instrument’s strings. Once he was finished with the song, he told the runner, “Have a good rest for your run.” She waved goodbye and continued sprinting on the sidewalk.
Later, PEOPLE reported that the runner, who received the spontaneous surprise of a lifetime was a woman named Nikki Atkins. According to the outlet, she posted her version of Sheeran’s video in her Instagram stories tagging @teddyphotos, and writing, “This is why we run girls!” Describing the surreal moment, Nikki spoke on the BBC Breakfast show, saying, it was so unexpected. “In my head, I was thinking like, 'Oh my God, he's actually singing to me. I'm not going to remember this if I don't film it this... I'm going to black out. I'm not going to know what's going on,’” she said, and added, "In that video, it looks so rapid that I pull my phone out, but I was just kind of like, 'Oh my God. Ed Sheeran is singing to [me]. I need to record this.’”
Comment by @hugotaylorlondon on Sheeran's video (Image Source: Instagram)
On Instagram, people showered compliments and praises on Sheeran. “Ed Sheeran still acting like he's just a random street musician even though he's the top of the music industry makes me love him even more,” commented @val.dressed.in.pastel. Bollywood star Anil Kapoor also commented on Sheeran’s post with a flurry of heart emojis. Meanwhile, the “Perfect” singer-songwriter gave his fans a pretty wild excuse to go for a run. “Teddyyy I’m running tomorrow, expect you to be there at 8am sharp,” declared an Instagrammer @anggitakputri_.
Comment on Sheeran's post by @ashleylouisejames (Image Source: Instagram)
Robin Williams performs for military men and women as part of a United Service Organization (USO) show on board Camp Phoenix in December 2007
Gif of Robin Williams via 
A woman conducts a online color testCanva
A selection of color swatchesCanva
A young boy takes a color examCanva 
Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.