01 Moby Natalie Portman split
CNN  — 

Moby is apologizing for what he wrote about Natalie Portman in his new memoir, “Then It Fell Apart.”

The 53-year-old musician described an alleged relationship with the Oscar-winning actress, saying he met Portman at one of his concerts when he was 33 and she was 20. He detailed in his memoir that Portman flirted with him in his dressing room. Later, he tried to date her in the early 2000s.

“For a few weeks I had tried to be Natalie’s boyfriend, but it hadn’t worked out,” Moby wrote in his book, released this month. “I thought that I was going to have to tell her that my panic was too egregious for me to be in a real relationship, but one night on the phone she informed me that she’d met somebody else. I was relieved that I’d never have to tell her how damaged I was.”

Portman, now 37, denied his claim in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, published Thursday, and said she had actually just turned 18 when the two met.

“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 said.

Earlier this week, Moby reasserted his account and said he had photographic evidence.

“It hurts to be lied about, especially as I’ve always respected her, and I thought we were friends,” he wrote on Instagram after hearing Portman’s denials.

Now, after much outrage online, Moby has made a public apology to Portman.

“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.

The singer said he should have acted “more responsibly and respectfully” given the age difference. He shared his admiration for Portman’s intelligence, creativity and animal rights activism.

Moby said he tried to treat everyone included in the book “with dignity and respect” and that his actions were “inconsiderate.”

“So for that I apologize, to Natalie, as well as the other people I wrote about in Then It Fell Apart without telling them beforehand,” Moby said.