Moby is reflecting on the differing memories he and Natalie Portman hold of their past. In his 2019 memoir, "Then It Fell Apart," the "Natural Blues" singer alleged that he briefly dated the "Black Swan" actress in 1999 when he was 33 and she was 18. However, Natalie has vehemently denied this claim.
Over the years since, Moby has remained steadfast in his belief about their short-lived relationship, but now he has a slightly different perspective.
"It's difficult for me to make sense of it," he admitted to The Times in an interview published on February 20th. When asked if it's now "a sour episode between two people who seem decent," the 60-year-old replied, "To the extent that I am capable of perspective on that, I don't disagree with what you're saying."
Natalie, now 44, did not hold back in sharing her feelings about their differing understandings of their encounter after Moby included a mention of her in his memoir.
"I was surprised to hear that he characterized the very short time that I knew him as dating," she told Harper's Bazaar UK in 2019. "Because my recollection is of a much older man being creepy with me."
She remembered their encounter after one of his concerts, where he suggested they could be friends.
"He was on tour and I was working on a film," she said. "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."
Not long after, Moby addressed her denial and issued an apology to her.
"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," he wrote on Instagram. "I also fully recognize that it was truly inconsiderate of me not to let her know about her inclusion in the book beforehand, and equally inconsiderate for me not to fully respect her reaction."
He continued, "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."
The Grammy nominee also mentioned their 14-year age difference, adding that given that dynamic, he "absolutely should've acted more responsibly and respectfully when Natalie and I first met almost 20 years ago."
But that wasn't the last time he spoke out about the controversy, expressing some regrets over the memoir a few years later. Still, he didn't agree with Natalie's recollection of the events as being "creepy."
"I wouldn't use that word," Moby explained to The Guardian in 2021. "But when I was an out-of-control alcoholic and drug addict, I definitely acted selfishly and incredibly inconsiderately towards family members and friends and girlfriends and people I worked with."
