Moby Apologizes To Natalie Portman: ‘It Was Truly Inconsiderate Of Me’

Putting an apparent end to one of the more bizarre celebrity disputes, musician Moby has apologized to Natalie Portman.

Moby claims in his new memoir, Then It Fell Apart, that he and Portman had dated in the late 1990s, when, he said, she was a 20-year-old Harvard undergraduate and he was in his early 30s. However, Portman disputed Moby’s version of events, per Variety, claiming that Moby was “a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school.” She also accused the musician of using her name and notoriety to sell books.

Portman also said she was 18, rather than 20, when they knew each other. Portman, who was born in June of 1981, turned 18 in 1999, the year of their supposed involvement. She graduated from high school that spring and began her studies at Harvard University that fall, the same year she starred in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

Moby had first doubled down on the claim, posting a vintage photo of the two of them in which he was shirtless and she was looking notably young, and sticking with the story that they had, in fact, dated.

However, Moby has now deleted that photo from Instagram and posted a new one, apologizing to the actress.

“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 said in the post.

He first apologized for not notifying Portman in advance that he was going to talk about her in his book. It was also, he wrote, “equally inconsiderate for me to not fully respect her reaction.” He went on to apologize to others he had included in the book without giving them a heads-up.

Moby went on to state his admiration for Portman, and to admit that he “should’ve acted more responsibly and respectfully.” The musician did not, however, fully back down from his assertion that the two of them had dated.

The 53-year-old Moby, whose real name is Richard Melville Hall, is descended from Moby Dick author Herman Melville, hence his performing name. A dance music composer, Moby’s 1999 album Play was his most successful. One of his songs, “Extreme Ways,” is featured at the end of every movie in the Bourne franchise, and the book title, Then It Fell Apart, comes from the lyrics of that song.