Controversial Claim Made By Moby About Dating Natalie Portman Has 'So Many Layers'

KEY POINTS

In his book, Moby wrote he met Portman in 1999 when he played in Austin
He had called their relationship "short-lived" and "confusing"
Portman had refuted his claims

Two years after claiming that he dated Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Portman in his memoir, "Then It Fell Apart," Musician Moby says he's not clear about what actually happened between them.

In his book, Moby wrote that the pair met in 1999 when he played in Austin and called it "short-lived" and "confusing." However, while speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, Portman refuted the claims and 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 had just graduated high school. He said I was 20; I definitely wasn’t. I was a teenager. I had just turned 18. That he used this story to sell his book was very disturbing to me.”

To recap a little, the musician wrote in his book that he dated Portman for a very brief period in his life when he was 36 and she 20. After refuting the claim, the actress explained that she was busy with shooting while Moby was on tour and they had hung out a few times before realizing that an older man was interested in her, which felt “inappropriate."

In his recent interview with The Guardian, he was asked about what happened with Portman. He says, “I tried to describe it to a friend of mine and I had a hard time because there were so many layers to it.” Moby then launched into a whole story about his drug abuse and self-centered nature, but stayed firm and didn’t really answer the question.

When pressed on the issue, he said, "A part of me wishes I could spend the next two hours deconstructing the whole thing, but there's levels of complexity and nuance that I really can't go into.”

The 55-year-old musician didn’t sound very regretful and tried to dodge the Portman questions with unrelated stories. Finally, when the writer, Tim Jonze asked him if whatever was written in the book was true as he recalled it, the musician said, “Er … yeah,” and compared it to the chess move known as a fork. However, about whether or not he acted creepily with the actress, he said, "I wouldn't use that word.”