"Don't" officially impacted US contemporary hit radio on 15 July 2014 as the album's second single.

[2] Sheeran first recorded the track with producer Benny Blanco,[3] who was also credited as co-writer under his real name, Benjamin Levin.

"[9] Sheeran scorned the former girl for having sex with another guy, and used an expletive in the line "Don't fuck with my love".

He recalled the events that inspired his writing: "[...] it was one of those situations where someone comes across as a very, very sweet, innocent person, and you take that for granted, then stuff unravels and you see a different side to them.

[13] Billboard speculated that the provocative, "Don't fuck with my love", chorus prompted the change.

[13] On 13 June 2014, "Don't" was made available to customers, who pre-ordered ×, as the second "instant grat" promotional single,[14] following "One", and an official audio stream was released on Sheeran's YouTube page.

[5] An extended play accompanied the release of the single, featuring a remix by Rick Ross, a live cover of Nina Simone's "Be My Husband", and a non-album song, "Everything You Are".

Notably, Sheeran's lyrics aren't censored on the Rick Ross remix, but are on the album version.

[15] Jason Lipshutz of Billboard wrote: "[...] 'Don't' shows that Sheeran is not afraid to be dangerous, or even explicit, on his sophomore set.

[16] As of September 2017, the song sold 399,000 copies in actual sales, and it also has 67 million streams, giving a total of 1,073,000 combined units in the UK.

The video was directed by Emil Nava and follows a dancer (Phillip Chbeeb from I.aM.mE) going from poverty to wealth.