In case you missed it, earlier this week Moby made headlines after claiming in his new memoir Then It Fell Apart that he dated Natalie Portman back when she was 20 and he was 33
This particularly shocked Natalie, who says they never actually dated. Speaking with Harper’s Bazaar she said, “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.”
She added that she was not 20 years old as Moby claimed, and was actually 18, “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.”
Following Natalie’s interview, Moby took to Instagram to share a post (which has since been deleted) saying their involvement was “brief, innocent, and consensual” adding the backlash he’s received is “affecting [his] business and [his] health”.
Now, Moby has finally apologised for the claims. He took to Instagram once more and wrote, “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.
“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.
“I have a lot of admiration for Natalie, for her intelligence, creativity, and animal rights activism, and I hate that I might have caused her and her family distress.”
“I apologize, to Natalie, as well as the other people I wrote about in Then It Fell Apart without telling them beforehand.
“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.”
It’s good to see some lessons were finally learned.