Moby has offered fresh clarification around the long-running controversy involving his comments about Natalie Portman — remarks that ultimately saw the actor brand him “creepy”.
The veteran electronic artist, whose career spans three decades and includes more than 20 million records sold, faced backlash after releasing his 2019 memoir Then It Fall Apart. In the book, he wrote that he had dated the Black Swan actor when she was 18 while he was 33.
The alleged relationship — and the age gap at the centre of it — was not something that had been widely reported back in 1999, the same year Portman’s profile rose further with the Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace.
When asked about Moby’s account by Harper’s Bazaar, Portman rejected the idea that they had dated and said she found his description of events unsettling. Moby, however, continued to insist his version was accurate.
Portman later addressed the memoir’s claims directly, disputing that it had ever been a romantic relationship. 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.”
She also described what she says happened after they first crossed paths in 1999. According to Portman, they met after one of his shows and he suggested they should be friends, but their schedules meant they rarely spent time together. She said: “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.”
Moby responded at the time by standing by the idea that it had been romantic, while also acknowledging her feelings about it. He said: “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.”
Now, in a new interview with The Times, the 60-year-old reflected on the dispute and admitted: ‘It’s hard for me to make sense of it’ looking back. He also agreed with the interviewer’s assessment that it had been ‘a sour episode between two people who seem decent.’
After reiterating his position for months following the memoir’s release, Moby later posted a public apology on Instagram. With time, he said he’d come to see why people objected to how Portman was included in the book, stating: “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.”
While he did not