Natalie Portman Refutes Moby’s Longtime Claim That He Dated Her, Calls His Interest In Her As A Teen ‘Creepy’ And ‘Disturbing’

In recent days, Moby has made headlines for talking about famous people he used to date back in the day. He just released his new memoir, Then It Fell Apart, and in it, he claims he previously had romantic encounters with people like Lana Del Rey and Natalie Portman (a claim he’s made for years). Portman caught wind of this, and she disagrees with Moby’s recollection of their relationship. Namely, she says they never “dated,” as he claims they did.

In a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Portman said that they did not in fact date, but that she remembers Moby as “a much older man being creepy with me”:

“I was surprised to hear that he characterized the very short time that I knew him as dating because my recollection is a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school. He said I was 20; I definitely wasn’t. I was a teenager. I had just turned 18. There was no fact checking from him or his publisher – it almost feels deliberate. That he used this story to sell his book was very disturbing to me. It wasn’t the case. There are many factual errors and inventions. I would have liked him or his publisher to reach out to fact check.

I was a fan and went to one of his shows when I had just graduated. 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.”

After Moby saw Portman’s response, he remained insistent that his description of his past encounters with Portman was accurate. He posted an old photo of Portman and himself on Instagram, and in the description, he said that while he understands why Portman would deny that they dated, he doesn’t believe he is misremembering what happened:

“I recently read a gossip piece wherein Natalie Portman said that we’d never dated. This confused me, as we did, in fact, date. And after briefly dating in 1999 we remained friends for years. I like Natalie, and I respect her intelligence and activism. But, to be honest, I can’t figure out why she would actively misrepresent the truth about our(albeit brief)involvement. The story as laid out in my book Then It Fell Apart is accurate, with lots of corroborating photo evidence, etc.
Thanks,
Moby

Ps I completely respect Natalie’s possible regret in dating me(to be fair, I would probably regret dating me, too), but it doesn’t alter the actual facts of our brief romantic history.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxwubzJhaq2/

There are two opposing sides to this story, but it would seem that the internet is more inclined to believe Portman’s version of events:

https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/1131216668905099264