One of the stranger stories from last week was when Natalie Portman had to make a public statement saying that she’d never dated Moby, as he claimed in his new memoir. Now the musician is belatedly apologizing for his assertion via a post on Instagram, as caught by Rolling Stone.
“As some time has passed I’ve realized that many of the criticisms leveled at me regarding my inclusion of Natalie in Then It Fell Apart are very valid,” Moby wrote. “I also fully recognize that it was truly inconsiderate of me to not let her know about her inclusion in the book beforehand, and equally inconsiderate for me to not fully respect her reaction.”
Moby went on to say he has “a lot of admiration for Natalie,” and that he hates “that I might have caused her and her family distress.” He formally apologized to Portman, and added, “Also I accept that given the dynamic of our almost 14 year age difference I absolutely should’ve acted more responsibly and respectfully when Natalie and I first met almost 20 years ago.”
In Then It Fell Apart, Moby dished about his alleged high-profile romantic partners, including Lana Del Rey and Portman, whom he said he’d briefly dated when she was 20 and he was not. Portman publicly shot down his claims, saying they never dated, and that she was actually 18 when they simply hung out.
“I was a fan and went to one of his shows when I had just graduated,” the Oscar-winning actress and filmmaker said. “When we met after the show, he said, ‘Let’s be friends.’ He was on tour and I was working, shooting a film, so we only hung out a handful of times before I realized that this was an older man who was interested in me in a way that felt inappropriate.”
Portman also said the publisher never reached out to her for a fact-check. She also called Moby’s attempt to use their alleged relationship to sell books “disturbing.”
Moby shot back with an Instagram post showing an old picture of the two of them — with him shirtless — where he claimed to be “confused” that Portman would deny they dated. Now it appears he’s backtracked.
(Via Rolling Stone)
