Earlier this month, Moby published a memoir, his second. It’s called Then It Fell Apart. Prophetic title! Because ever since the book came out, Moby’s entire public life has basically exploded. The book is full of salacious stories. At various points, Moby talks about hooking up with Christina Ricci, dating a pre-fame Lana Del Rey, and pressing his flaccid dick up against an unsuspecting Donald Trump. Moby also claims, in the book, that he and Natalie Portman briefly dated when she was very young. Natalie Portman took issue with this.

In a Harper’s Bazaar interview, Portman denies that she and Moby ever dated, describing Moby instead as “a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school.” (Moby is 14 years older than Portman. Portman claims that they got to know each other when she was 18; Moby says she was 20.) Moby then jumped on Instagram, insisting that the two really had dated: “I can’t figure out why she would actively misrepresent the truth about our(albeit brief)involvement.” A few days later, Moby apologized, saying that it was “inconsiderate” of him not to reach out to Portman before publishing the book and to “not fully respect her reaction.” He also wrote that he “absolutely should’ve acted more responsibly and respectfully” toward Portman when they first met.

In the wake of this whole thing, the BBC reports that Moby has cancelled the British leg of his book tour. (The American leg has already wrapped up.) Moby was set to make four UK appearances, beginning this weekend in Hay-On-Wye. Now, a note on Moby’s site claims that Moby “is canceling all upcoming public appearances for the foreseeable future.”

On Instagram, Moby apologizes again and writes that he’s “going to go away for awhile”:

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