Electronic music guru and the artist who soundtracks all your favourite TV adverts, Moby has today cancelled all his UK & Ireland tour dates with immediate effect. This act follows comments made earlier in the week where he was branded as “creepy” for his alleged relationship with actor Natalie Portman. A claim denied by Portman herself but stated in Moby’s book “Then It Fell Apart”.

Moby Cancels UK Book Tour, Says He’s “Going To Go Away For Awhile” https://t.co/GaIAwbYJyh pic.twitter.com/LE0UKLUOwu

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 30, 2019

A statement on the artist’s website reads “moby is canceling all upcoming public appearances for the foreseeable future.we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. all tickets will be refunded at the point of purchase, and moby is happy to provide signed bookplates to everyone who bought tickets to these events”. The NME describes Moby’s as “featuring a section in which the musician recounts The book features a section in which the musician recounts taking Natalie Portman for a drink and, later, kissing her while visiting her at Harvard”.  Portman however denies these suggestions saying that she found them both disturbing and a falsehood. Portman’s full statement reads “I was surprised to hear that he characterised 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.” To which Moby responded by saying “I recently read a gossip piece wherein Natalie Portman said that we’d never dated. This confused me, as we did, in fact, date. And after briefly dating in 1999 we remained friends for years”. “I like Natalie, and I respect her intelligence and activism. But, to be honest, I can’t figure out why she would actively misrepresent the truth about our (albeit brief) involvement. The story as laid out in my book Then It Fell Apart is accurate, with lots of corroborating photo evidence, etc.” Days of criticism and negative press then followed until Moby’s tour cancellation this morning.

Moby’s treatment of Natalie Portman is a masterclass in nice-guy misogyny | Arwa Mahdawi https://t.co/L8V0of0eF8 — Soraya Chemaly (@schemaly) May 25, 2019

Moby has also been posting about the alleged relations via his Twitter pages. In a serious of 4 posts the artist tweeted his apologies for any misunderstandings about the section in his book containing Natalie Portman, however he was criticised for not truly apologising for this actions and for making the incident about himself. The posts end with the artist saying “he is going away for a while”

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I certainly haven’t enjoyed this last week, but it’s reminded me of a couple of things. 1-our sense of self and well-being really shouldn’t come from the opinions of strangers. personally I think I’d become too reliant on external validation, especially in the form of social media. trust me, that has ended.. and: 2-my problems are tiny and insignificant, especially in a world where over 100 billion animals are killed by and for humans every year, and where we’re facing largely unprecedented environmental destruction and degradation. for a long time my primary goal has been to be a better, and more effective, activist. who knows, maybe the insanity of this last week will somehow help me to do that. it certainly does seem that for me(or any of us) to obsess over social media when the world is truly falling apart is an un-ethical waste of time. -moby p.s-a reminder; none of our concerns will matter if the climate keeps rising, the rainforest keeps disappearing, and species continue to go extinct. social media won’t sustain us in a world that doesn’t support human life.

A post shared by moby xⓋx (@moby) on May 25, 2019 at 3:55am PDT

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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 tried to treat everyone I included in Then It Fell Apart with dignity and respect, but nonetheless it was truly inconsiderate for me to not let them know before the book was released. 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. 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. Moby

A post shared by moby xⓋx (@moby) on May 25, 2019 at 6:44am PDT

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Because I don’t know how long the media will be fixated on me(I mean, who knew that so many people found sober middle aged guys with attachment issues to be so interesting), I thought I’d take advantage of the spotlight and draw attention to some of my favorite organizations. And please forgive me if I accidentally leave some off, I’ll try to add more tomorrow: @janegoodallinst @glaad @emilys_list @physicianscommittee @humanesociety @animalequality @thehumaneleague @greenpeaceusa @nrdc_org @prochoiceamerica @rainforestactionnetwork @wthfilm @int.anti.poaching.foundation @sheldricktrust @directactioneverywhere @wagv @everytown @sandyhookpromise @compassion_over_killing @nasaclimatechange @womenforwomen @timesupnow @orchidproject ps you will notice I didn’t include any animal sanctuaries, because to be honest there are simply too many wonderful sanctuaries to list. More tomorrow!

A post shared by moby xⓋx (@moby) on May 27, 2019 at 3:26pm PDT

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I’m going to go away for awhile. But before I do I want to apologize again, and to say clearly that all of this has been my own fault. I am the one who released the book without showing it to the people I wrote about. I’m the one who posted defensively and arrogantly. I’m the one who behaved inconsiderately and disrespectfully, both in 2019 and in 1999. There is obviously no one else to blame but me. Thank you, and I’m sorry. Moby

A post shared by moby xⓋx (@moby) on May 28, 2019 at 8:52am PDT